To Love can't be excused
by Twilight-Steff
Summary: Yuffie and Vincent think about the future, Tifa attempts to leave and a Bloody battle occurs at the Shinra memorial, (Warning: a bit of violence in this chapter)
1. Party

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy 7's characters, objects or vehicles, sob sob.  
  
A/N: I am taking a break from Who? At the moment because of severe writers block.  
  
"Cloud would you like to dance?" Tifa asked nervously, Cloud remained silent. He had not wanted to have a party, sure they had saved most of the world, but what about Midgar and Kalm, didn't they matter, didn't little Marlene being, probably, scarred for life at what she had witnessed matter. "No Tifa, I don't want to dance," he said at last. Tifa walked of the balcony back into the ballroom; Yuffie was smiling mockingly as Tifa emerged alone, they had never really got on.  
  
Cloud shook his head and sighed, he looked over the balcony as far as he could see. He closed his eye's and wondered what it would be like if She was here, he would dance with her. "Aeris," he whispered.  
  
"Hah, didn't I tell you he would never dance with you," Yuffie snarled. "Well I bet he wouldn't dance with you either," Tifa snapped back. "I don't want to dance with that dork," Yuffie fought back. Tifa noticed that Yuffie's eyes had strayed over Tifa's shoulder and were staring at Vincent. Tifa smiled at Yuffie "Oh, I see, have your eye on higher product's then," Tifa said "What uh I don't know what you mean," Yuffie stuttered and turned red. Tifa turned round and walked over to Vincent.  
  
"Wow, Vincent you look nice tonight," She started. "What do you want?" He sighed "Well I just wondered if you'd dance with me," she said looking up at him. "Huh, okay." He said as Tifa pulled him over to the dance floor.  
  
Yuffie felt a pain inside her body as she watched them dance, Yuffie could take physical pain but not this kind. She stepped back into a dark corner, where nobody could see her. She felt water dribble down her cheeks, the only other time she had cried was when Aeris had died. She looked around the room, no one would even notice if she weren't here, "Fine I'll just leave," She told herself, she picked up her purse and snuck out.  
  
Cloud looked down over the edge of the balcony, "Yuffie where are you going?" he called down as he saw Yuffie flee from the building. "Uh, back to the Inn, I have a head ache and need to lay down." She said not stopping running. Cloud thought nothing of it; he took a gold sphere out of his pocket. Luckily Yuffie had not stolen this materia. He ran his finger under the word in scripted in it, Pure Rebirth. He smiled, and then frowned. He wanted so much to have Aeris back, but some of the other members of AVALANCHE had protested, believing that he should leave her. Cloud knew in his heart that it was right, but his mind was filled of doubt.  
  
"This is fun isn't it Vincent," Tifa asked looking up at him Vincent didn't reply, he was looking all over the room with a confused look all over his face. "Vincent what's wrong?" Tifa sighed. "I don't feel like dancing anymore," He said letting go of Tifa and walking over to the food table. Tifa was confused, she ran after him. "What was that all about?" She questioned "I just don't feel like it okay!" he said through gritted teeth. "Why? Was it something I said?" Tifa was upset now. "No, I just.." He started; he didn't feel like explaining his feelings. "Where is Yuffie?" He said "I don't know, who care's its just Yuffie," Tifa said looking round the room. "Something could have happened to her," He said with a worried tone in his voice. "Like what, oh maybe she choked on a sausage roll or drowned in the punch!" She said sarcastically, Vincent was not amused. He rolled his eyes and went to go and stand mysteriously somewhere.  
  
"Geez, I thought the Inn was here, I must have taken a wrong turn," Yuffie said to herself, it was now very dark and cold, Nibelhiem was a lot more daunting in the dark. "Hey beautiful, are you lost?" asked a man, Yuffie couldn't see because it was so dark. "Why yes, uh I can't find the Inn," She replied "Hmm why do you want to stay there, you'd have more fun with us Baby," another man spoke up. Yuffie now realized a gang of men had surrounded her. She gasped and tried to call out, but someone stopped her by covering her mouth. She tried to kick him but was held still, she squirmed and wiggled around, One of the men punched her in the stomach, another grabbed her hair and smacked her in the face, and the gang leader grabbed her by her shoulders and shoved her against the wall. Yuffie felt dizzy and collapsed on the floor. When she awoke about an hour later, the men had gone. She tried to stand but failed, she was frightened. She hugged her knees and wept; although she was unconscious she knew what had happened to her. She heard footsteps, she shook with fear. "Yuffie?" The familiar voice of Cid Highwind called, he stepped closer and lifted her up. He took her back to the Inn.  
  
He pushed the door open to the room he was sharing with Vincent (it's a double room, there not together or anything, just friends) Vincent was sitting on the sofa; he looked over at Cid and stood up. Cid put Yuffie down on the sofa. "Yuffie, are you alright?" Vincent asked kneeling beside her. She shook her head. "I found her outside, in the street." Cid said kneeling down too. "What happened?" Vincent asked. Yuffie shook her head again and burst into tears. Cid got up and got some bandages for Yuffie's wounds. "Yuffie who did this to you, we have to know?" Vincent continued, desperate to get an answer from her. "I..I don't know, I was so scared," she said eventually " Why did you leave the party?" "I felt ill," She lied. Cid put some cream on the cuts and bandaged them up.  
  
Yuffie sat silently, staring down at the floor. "Who beat you up Yuffie, did you see them," Cid asked "One of them, the leader was that man we always got in fights with, he had red hair, do you remember," Yuffie said "Reno?" Vincent spoke up Yuffie nodded. "Were the other Turks with him?" Cid asked Yuffie shook her head, "No just him and a gang," she whispered. "We should tell the others, if we find them we can deal with them," Vincent stated. "I'll get everyone together," Cid said, he stood up and walked out of the room. Vincent looked at Yuffie; all the life had been drained from her eyes. Vincent had a creepy feeling about this. "Yuffie, they didn't just beat you up did they?" he said finally Yuffie looked at Vincent, the look on her face confirmed Vincent's fears. She burst into tears and held out her arms towards him. Vincent hugged her tightly and rocked her back and forth. "Were going to find that motherfucker, okay, and if I don't kill him Godo will." Vincent promised "No Godo can't know, he'd be furious he'd take me away from all of you, he is always saying that a "Princess shouldn't be hanging around with a bunch of terrorists" this would give him an excuse to keep me in Wutai," Yuffie said between sobs. Vincent nodded. They heard the door open and the other's entered, all except Cloud. Vincent tried to pull away, but Yuffie just held him tighter, he got the hint and stayed where he was. "Yuffie we heard what happened," Red XII said as he came over to her. He jumped up on to the sofa and licked her cheek. Yuffie took one arm off Vincent and put it on top of Red XII, she hugged them both tightly.  
  
Tifa felt bad, she had always been so horrible to Yuffie, she didn't trust her, but this was just sick. Yuffie was only sixteen. She stepped forward and hugged Yuffie as well. "Where's Cloud?" Barret asked.  
  
A/N: Pretty lame I know, it's going to get better, I promise. Please R&R. 


	2. My firework

Disclaimer: don't own any of the FF7 stuff mentioned

* * *

"Where is Cloud?" Barret asked.  
  
"He's asleep, do you want me to go wake him," Cait sith said waving his megaphone around.  
  
"No leave him," Red spoke up.  
  
Everyone started bombarding Yuffie with questions, "what happened," "who did it," "what did they do?"  
  
" I don't want to talk, not now," she whispered eventually.  
  
"It might help, get it off your chest you know," Vincent added  
  
"I know, I know, later right now I want to have a bath, I feel all dirty," she replied.  
  
"Okay, I'll get Cid to run you one," he said pulling away and standing up, Yuffie looked up at him, she looked scared without him.  
  
Vincent and Cid were talking over in the corner, Cid's jaw dropped and shook his head, Vincent said something else. Cid nodded his head and then walked into the bathroom.  
  
Yuffie held her arms up at Vincent again, he nodded and walked back over to her, she quickly returned her arm around him, he made her feel safe, Tifa and Red were also "keeping her safe" but it wasn't the same as Vincent.  
  
"Cid's running your bath, It will be ready soon," he whispered gently.

* * *

Cloud was a million miles away in his dreams, he was with Aeris. They were both lying on the floor watching a firework show. Cloud could see the fireworks go off in her eyes.  
  
"This is so cool, I've only ever seen the fireworks at the Gold saucer and their nothing like these," She exclaimed.  
  
"I knew you'd like it, I arranged it specially," He said, he was happy to make her happy.  
  
"Oh Cloud their magnificent, thank you," She giggled  
  
"I promise that when we are together we'll see a real firework show, and I'll take you on the gondola's, and to Midgar, it's so beautiful now, like a jungle." Cloud promised "Oh I can't wait, I'm so glad you decided that you wanted me back," Aeris said she wept slightly.  
  
"I love you and I can't live without you, there was no decision needed," Cloud said sitting up,  
  
"I..I love you too, I just never thought you would feel the same, I mean Tifa." Aeris looked down  
  
Cloud smiled, not something he did on a daily basis, he pulled Aeris closer and tilted her chin up. She lent forward, gravity did the rest, their lips met, Cloud wanted so much to taste and feel her there, but no just air, He opened his eyes and sat up.  
  
"Oh Aeris, there is no decision needed," he whispered whilst he starred out of the Window,  
  
"Bang," a firework flashed across the sky, Cloud smiled again.

* * *

Yuffie stepped into the bathroom and shut the door, she pulled the lock across. She looked at herself in the mirror, her cuts had gone after Cid had cured her, there were still bruises on her shoulders, back and arms, and a sprain in her ankle.  
  
She walked over to the bath, she pulled her blood-smothered dress off and through it at the floor in anger, it was expensive and now it was ruined. She removed what was left of her ripped underwear and climbed in. The water was so hot; it felt like her skin was burning, "the hotter the better," she thought to herself. She picked up the shower crème and poured the whole lot down herself, even in her hair. She then picked up the bubble bath and poured the whole bottle in, bubbles were everywhere. She picked up a sponge and scrubbed herself from head to toe.  
  
Yuffie opened the cabinet and took out three bottles of shampoo and some conditioner, they were probably Vincent's and he would understand, She thought to herself as she emptied all the bottles over her head, quite a lot went into her eye's, she didn't even flinch.  
  
She rinsed herself off using the shower and then repeated the process another 6 times, until the bottles were completely empty. She climbed out and took one of the complementary towelling dressing gowns and put it on. She went over to the sink and brushed her hair. Yuffie tried to wash the stains out of her dress in the bath, it was a complete failure as the dress shrunk and the stains just turned a nasty brown colour. She stood up and punched the wall  
  
Yuffie opened the door and walked out, the others had gone.  
  
"You should go and get some sleep," Cid said from the other side of the room.  
  
Yuffie nodded, "Can one of you take me back to my room?" she asked  
  
"Yes, I will take you, is your ankle okay to walk on?" Vincent said coming out of one of the bedrooms.  
  
Yuffie nodded again.  
  
Vincent opened the door and Yuffie walked through.  
  
They walked down the corridor in silence.  
  
"I..I think this is my room," Yuffie said after a while.  
  
"Okay, do you want me to make you a drink or something first?" Vincent said, he could see Yuffie didn't want to go in there alone.  
  
"Yes, please," she said opening the door.  
  
Yuffie walked into the bedroom and laid down on the bed, Vincent bought her a drink.  
  
"Thank you, for everything," she said not looking at him.  
  
"It's alright," Vincent sighed he could see her face in the reflection of the mirror. She looked so ashamed. "Good night, Yuffie?" she had fallen asleep.  
  
Vincent turned round and walked out.  
  
Yuffie heard the door shut, she opened her eyes, she pulled her knee's up under her chin. "I'm alone," she thought.  
  
She got out of bed and picked up the Conformer, she put it on the bed and kept one hand on it.

* * *

"Cloud, Cloud wake up," Tifa knocked on his door. No reply.  
  
"I'm coming, just stop banging will you!" he shouted back "What do you want?" he said as he came out.  
  
"Where were you last night?" She asked, she was quite sure Cloud was angry at her for something.  
  
"In bed, why?" He said putting some bread in the toaster.  
  
"Reno attacked Yuffie!" She exclaimed  
  
"Oh my, poor Yuff, is she okay, she is alive isn't she?" Cloud said sounding panicky  
  
"Yes, she really shaken up though," Tifa explained.  
  
"I shouldn't have let her go on her own!" Cloud thought back to the last time he'd seen her.  
  
"What, did you see her leave?" Tifa asked.  
  
"Yes, she was upset about something and said she needed to lye down," He said turning round, he had burnt his toast.  
  
A lump formed in Tifa's throat, it was her fault. She was the one that made Yuffie run off.

* * *

Yuffie woke up; she had had a lot of frightening dreams and was still quite tired. She found herself some clean clothes; they were the same as her normal outfit, with the exception of her thin, jumper- like tank top. Instead of Green this one was burgundy.  
  
She picked up her Conformer and other personal property.  
  
Yuffie didn't like being alone at the moment. She walked as fast as she could down to the dinning room, where they had arranged to meet.  
  
Everyone was sitting at the table, she was happy to see them, but her face would not smile.  
  
"How are you this morning?" Tifa asked.  
  
"I..I don't know," Yuffie answered  
  
Cloud apologised for not being there last night, In all honesty Yuffie hadn't noticed.  
  
They ate silently, Cloud decided to tell them about his plan to resurrect Aeris.  
  
"Last night I made a decision, Today I am going to resurrect Aeris, with or without your blessing," he looked around the table to check their reactions.

* * *

A/N: I can't believe I acted so obnoxiosly before, I think I have removed all the stupid stuff I said about Reffie's, If I have missed one of these comments please tell me so I can delete them.

Thanks, Twilight Steff, previously Vantia-Vantresque


	3. His decsion

Disclaimer: I don't own any Final fantasy material.

A/N: Thanks for your reviews, I'm back from holiday and finished moving house, just encase anyone missed me!

Cloud looked at Tifa, she was holding back the tears, Barret was shaking his head at him, Cid lit up another Cigarette, Red XII nodded in approval as did Cait Sith and Vincent, finally he looked at Yuffie, her lips quivered into a smile.

"Cloud, Aeris is dead, you have to except that!" Tifa said finally.

"I know its wrong…. But oh hell with it, I promised the girl a ride on the Highwind and Cid never goes back on his word!" Cid exclaimed 

"Her life was stolen from her, she deserves a second chance," Vincent added

"I…I want to see her again, I want it to be like the old days," Yuffie whispered.

"Your sick all of you!!!!" Tifa said allowing herself to cry, "Aeris told me to look after Cloud, But I guess I already failed," she ran out of the room.

"Tif, I don't love you, maybe once I did but I can't keep making excuses for the way that I feel," Cloud shouted after her.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Reno, is it true that some bloke's out to get you?" 

"What, who, where did you here this?" Reno thumped the wall

"Two guy's were chatting, outside the Inn, they said some Valentine guy was after you!" The young man known as Rufus Shinra added.

Reno went pale, 

"Are you alright, why does he want you," Rufus questioned

"I knew I knew that woman," Reno said out loud to himself, 

"What woman?" Rufus becoming even more confused.

"I was drunk and anyway she had it coming," Reno went on.

"Oh shit Reno, what did you do to her!" Rufus exclaimed

Reno looked at Rufus and looked away, Rufus shook his head "Not again, you're sick, I'm not getting you out of this one!" Rufus was so ashamed of his so-called friend.

"She shouldn't have turned me down," Reno said in his defence. 

"You mean Lady Kisaragi, even if that Valentine guy doesn't finish you, you will be executed, Lord Godo is not a man to mess around with," said Rufus shaking his head, he remembered the day Yuffie had slapped Reno for asking her to sleep with him, once again he was drunk.

Reno's mind was working over time. He was thinking of a plan to protect himself

"I know, I'll kidnap her, they won't hurt me because If they me I'll have her killed," he chuckled, his eyes were full off fear.

"No way, I'm not having anything to do with this!" Rufus backed away, Reno had lost most off his mind when Shinra went down and he lost his job, he now turned to crime to pay for his booze and drug habits, Rufus was upset that what had become of his best Turk, (other than Tseng).

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Aeris, Aeris is going to come back, I can't wait to see her again!" Yuffie said almost sounding excited.

"Yes, it will be a great day, I just wish Tifa could understand," Vincent replied, he was pleased at the way Yuffie was acting.

"We have to go and get ready, Cloud says to meet him at the Highwind at around 6pm, its 5:35 now, we have to hurry!" Yuffie pulled on his arm.

"Okay, go and get changed and we'll meet in the lobby," he said, they had came to Yuffie's room already.

Yuffie looked sad, she didn't want to go in there on her own, 

"Is that okay?" Vincent asked when he saw the slight spark in her eye die down.

"Y..es, that's fine, see you in a minute," Kisaragi's weren't cowards, she knew that she had to be brave.

She pushed open the door and shut it behind her, she did up the lock and sighed, she decided to dress quickly so she wouldn't be alone for to long.

She searched through her wardrobe and pulled out a black knee length dress, she didn't feel like wearing anything to colourful. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Vincent walked the little way down the hall to his and Cid's room, Cid was out preparing the Highwind, he had rebuilt it and was just checking the safety procedures,

Vincent walked over to his quarters in the room, he found the suit he had worn the day before and put it on, he brushed his hair and removed his headband, he tied his hair in to a lose pony tail.

"alright time to meet Yuffie in the lobby," He thought to himself.

he rushed as fast as he could so that if she was already there she wouldn't have to wait for him long.

Yuffie was pleased to see him and rushed over to him.

"Come on the others are waiting," She took his hand and lead him outside, Vincent blushed, Yuffie looked great in her dress, he shook the thought from his head, she was far to fragile at the moment, she didn't need him gawking at her as well.

They arrived at the Highwind and stood there, their jaws dropped,

"Is, is that Cloud?" Yuffie stuttered

"I believe so," He answered slowly.

Instead of his usual 7 inch spike on his head, he had his hair down in a lose pony tail, similar to Vincent's, just not as long.

"That's weird, but strangely nice," she whispered as Cloud approached them

"Trying a new look, eh?" Vincent asked

"No, just for special occasions, like today," Cloud said sounding excited

Yuffie smiled slightly and nodded

"Well, Cid's ready to go, come on!" Cloud turned and ran back to the Highwind, his hair blew in the wind as he ran.

"We'd better not keep him waiting," Vincent said to Yuffie

she took his hand tightly in hers and ran after Cloud.

The Highwind set of minutes later, Cloud walked round to hear everyone's comments.

He walked over to Red XII,

"Hmmm, I am looking forward to seeing Aeris again, but I wonder how you are going to go about resurrecting her?" Red asked quietly so no one else would here.

Cloud showed the Pure Rebirth Materia to Red XII

Red gasped, "Very impressive, it must have taken you along time to acquire that!"

Cloud nodded and went on,

"Hello Cloud, You must be ecstatic about seeing her again," Vincent said as Cloud approached him

"Yes, I just wish that Barret and Tifa were here, there blessing would have meant so much to me," 

Vincent thought about how this was effecting Tifa, it was obvious that Cloud was the world to her, Vincent thought back to the night before when she had asked him to dance, he felt sorry for her so he excepted.

Cloud moved on, today Yuffie was sitting with Vincent and Red XII as a change of sitting on her own out back.

He walked over to her.

"..............." 

Cloud could see that he was going to have to start this conversation

"Yuffie, you must be looking forward to seeing Aeris again," Cloud started

She nodded, "Aeris was my first real friend,"

Cloud decided to move on to Cid.

"I had to do some Cleaning up in here, well if we going to have Aeris on here it has to look presentable," Cid said proudly

Cloud nodded and smiled, Cid was very excited about having Aeris on the Highwind, he had even installed a different engine so it would run more smoothly and she would be more comfortable.

Finally Cloud walked over to Cait Sith who was dancing wildly. 

"She told ME to be strong, ME Cait Sith, or even Cait Sith one, but it stills counts,"

"We're here," Called Cid as he landed the Highwind.

Cloud straightened out his suit and checked his hair, he smiled to himself and stepped off the highwind.

A/N: please R&R, Next chapter is out now! 


	4. Aeris's Spectacular Return

Disclaimer: I don't own any final fantasy stuff.

* * *

"Papa, Papa, why aren't me, you and Auntie Tifa going to see the flower lady?" a confused Marlene questioned.

"Coz, Auntie Tifa is not very well and someone had to look after her didn't they," Barret lied.

"Well, why couldn't I have gone, Cait Sith would have looked after me, he's my friend," She continued.

Barret sighed, "I'm sure he is, but it would be past your bed time by the time they got back, and you'll see Aeris as soon as she arrives, I'll come and wake you up," he said tucking her in.

"Do you want to know a secret?" Marlene giggled. "

What?" Barret decided to play along with his daughters game.

"well, Cloud and Aeris, Tee hee, love each other," She giggled and blushed

"And how do you know this?" Barret asked

"Because before she, you know, died, she told me that she loved him, and when I was speaking to Uncie Cloud he said that Aeris was the only person to see the true him, or something," She replied, she had almost drifted off now.

Barret nodded and kissed her head. "And also daddy, Auntie Yuffie is in love with......." her sentence was cut short by her falling asleep.

Barret smiled, Marlene was such a little gossip, he was sure that he would be told who Auntie Yuffie loved in the morning.

Barret was so proud of the way Marlene had recovered from seeing Midgar and Kalm being destroyed, she was a true fighter just like her father.

"Is she sleeping," Tifa asked as Barret re-entered the living room, he almost tripped over one of the bag's, every one was going to stay at his house tonight, so Barret and Tifa had had to check everyone out of the hotel and carry there bag's back to the station, they caught the train to the re-built Corel and had to carry the bags back to his house.

"Yeah, she's been up to her old tell-a-tail tricks again, she was going to tell me who Yuffie fancied," Barret chuckled, "But she fell asleep,"

Tifa laughed gently, she already knew the answer to that question.

Barret stopped laughing, "So how are you holding up," He said sitting down next to her

"Oh I just don't know, I've had a long chat with Elmyra about it, she's making me some tea right now, and she doesn't know what I should do about it either," Tifa explained, Elmyra and Barret had moved in with each other a few days after the Midgar incident, she had know where to live and her and Marlene had got on so well Barret let her move in, within a week he had fallen in love with her, and her him. Elmyra walked in to the room with tea for all of them.

"How are you dear?" Elmyra asked gently

"I just feel as though, I'm a spare part, that I don't belong to anything special, I wish that someone could love me," Tifa explained, she would have thought that Elmyra would have been the last person she could have spoken to, with her being Aeris foster mother, but she was finding it incredibly easy to say what she felt with her.

"There are other men, what about Vincent," Elmyra suggested Tifa sighed, "

I wish, he is slowly but surely warming to someone else, if I went with him it would only be a matter of time until he's sees his light, and its

"I'm sorry Tifa, I can't make excuses for the way I feel for Yuffie, Just like with Cloud,"

Barret's jaw had dropped, "What?"

"Don't be silly Barret, its easy to see that something between them that wasn't before," Tifa said turning her attention to him momentarily,

She sighed, "I just think that's it's end for me, like Cloud was a major part of me and who I was,"

Cloud stood at the edge of the water where he had laid Aeris to temporarily rest, he took a deep breath, he put his hand in his pocket and removed the Gold orb.

He knelt down and placed it into the water, it sparkled like mad and then released a silver mist, the mist surrounded everyone and clouded the water, slashes of colour formed in the mist as it started to swirl, causing a small beautiful, tornado in and above the water, the mist faded into the gentle tornado, it started to twist faster, the colour's started to fade into the water,

Revealing the Beautiful Ancient, she was hovering over the water, the magic had supplied her with a long, purple, sparkling gown with long diamond earrings matching necklace and bracelet, her hair was wisped up on to the top of her head with a bunch of curls hanging down here and there, some over the edge of her face.

Her Green eye's fluttered open and looked straight into Cloud's eye's, Huge smiles spread over both of there faces, Aeris ran over the water to him, causing a few mystical splashes, the water was shining as though it was made of a thousand diamonds.

Cloud reached out his arms and lifted her up, he span her gently and then lowered her to the ground, placing her bare feet on the grass, he put his hand's on her back and pulled her closer, she stood up on tip-toes and leant towards him, he leant down and kissed her lips gently, she tasted better than he had imagined and her lips were softer than he thought possible, neither of them wanted to break away, they had waited so long for this moment, the rest of the world seemed to fade away for the few moments they had wanted since the day they met. Reluctantly they broke away, the other's were cheering like mad, even Yuffie had a huge smile on her face. Aeris looked around at everyone, she noticed Tifa and Barret were absent, she would ask why later, right now she just wanted to enjoy the moment.

"I love you Aeris Gainsborough," Cloud shouted as he span her around again

"I Love you too Cloud Strife," She shouted as she was spun. Hearing Aeris's voice again sent waves of happiness through Clouds body, it helped him remember that this was real. Tears of happiness streamed down there faces,

"Nice hair," Aeris said gently touching his face,

"I did it specially, I'm glad you like it," Cloud whispered, he put his hand on her cheek and wiped away her tears. She rested her head on his chest,

"So many times I dreamed of this, but it was never this great!" she wrapped her arms round his waist. Fireworks exploded all over the sky, they were the brightest and biggest Cloud could find, Aeris gasped,

"Just like you promised, I thought that was a dream?" "It was, but dreams have a funny way of becoming reality, don't they?" he brushed his finger on her cheek and tilted her head up. There lips met again but with more passion than before.

* * *

A/N: this was a short Chapter, because I wanted it to just be based on Cloud and Aeris. XXX Next chapter soon

I'm renovating this fic at the moment, I have sorted out this chapter. I felt so stupid when i read over my anti-Reffie comment's, that was so pathetic of me.


	5. Missing Yuffie

Disclaimer: I don't own any Final Fantasy characters or vehicles or other stuff.

Cloud took Aeris's hand and helped her onto the Highwind,

"Be careful, Cid polished the floor's, they might be a bit slippery," he warned

"Hehehe, I can't believe I'm really going on a airship!" Aeris exclaimed with a giggle.

Cloud smiled.

"alright do you want a tour?" Cid walked up behind them.

"Yes please!" Aeris turned to face him.

"Okay, well other there is the Chocobo Stable, and that other larger room is where we had all our of our meetings and decided what to do when things went wrong," Cid explained, he walked on, Aeris followed.

"And this is where Yuffie stands because she gets motion sickness, and up there is the deck, we fought a few monsters up there," Cid then took Aeris into the control room.

Aeris gasped and ran forward, she pressed a few buttons, but did no harm.

"This is the control room, would you like to fly it?" Cid asked

"Yes, that would be great!" She smiled excitedly. 

The others joined them in the control room.

"Cloud, I'm going to help fly the Highwind!!" she said

"Oh wow, be careful I think its still on Auto-blast," he replied, 

Aeris turned round and pulled another leaver, it started up.

It shunted forward, Aeris grabbed the steering wheel, The Highwind jolted from side to side, 

"Errr, please don't," Yuffie fell to the ground with a bump.

"Sorry, I think I need some help Cid," She called over to him

"Okay, well this makes it go forward and this stabilises it okay?" Cid pointed to a different leaver.

"okay, thank you," Aeris tried again, this time it moved straight forward gently, 

"Look I'm doing it," she laughed happily

The highwind moved smoother than it ever had

"So, what destination crew?" Aeris asked

"We're staying at Barret's tonight so its New north Corel, it where the old north Corel is," Cloud walked over to Aeris.

"Oh okay, Cloud why weren't Barret and Tifa there tonight?" Aeris asked keeping her eyes on the sky. 

"Well we didn't exactly have there blessing, but I just know that they just need time and they'll understand," he stepped forward and wrapped his arms round her waist, she rested her head on his shoulder but kept her hands on the wheel.

"Tifa is going to hate me isn't she?" Aeris sighed

"I'd never let her hurt you," Cloud whispered gently

"I know, and I don't think that she would hurt me, but she won't want to be friends with me like we were before," Aeris continued

"I love you, and when Tifa realises that she'll move on with her life," Cloud pulled her closer,

"I love you too, and I pray that your right," Aeris relaxed, 

"Okay, were here, how do I land this?" She called to Cid.

He came over and landed the Highwind. "You're a natural my dear," Cid complemented 

Aeris took a deep breathe as she stood off of the airship.

The other's had walked ahead, she felt Cloud squeeze her hand tightly, he lead her to the house.

Vincent knocked on the door to Barret's house, Cid and Yuffie were standing behind him, Cait and Red behind them and finally Cloud and Aeris.

Elmyra came to the door, she pushed past everyone and embraced her daughter,

"Oh Mom, I've missed you so much," Aeris hugged her back.

Elmyra looked up at Cloud and pulled him closer to hug him as well.

"Flower Lady, YAY!!!!" Little Marlene ran out and hugged Aeris's legs, Elmyra let go of Aeris.

Aeris bent down and lifted Marlene up, "My how you've grown, I bet the boy's don't leave you alone," 

She giggled, "Yeah, my boyfriend is called Law, don't tell my papa," 

"I won't, friends keep secrets don't they," she poked Marlene gently on the nose.

Aeris looked up, she saw Barret and Tifa standing at the door, Tifa ran forward and hugged Aeris tightly.

Aeris smiled happily and hugged her friend. Barret came out and wrapped the two girls in a huge bear hug, Aeris was so happy.

The evening went on, Aeris had a lot to catch up on. She had talked to Yuffie and Yuffie told her about what had happened to her, Aeris had comforted her to the best of her ability. Talking about it had helped Yuffie a lot.

It was now late and everyone was going to bed. She was looking forward to being with Cloud, they hadn't had much time to talk.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Yuffie sat in her room staring out of the window, it had become a cloudy night and Yuffie could barely see the full moon.

she heard a knock on her door.

"Come in," she called not taking her eyes of the night sky.

"Are you alright, I just came to say goodnight," The familiar voice of Vincent soothed her.

"Yeah, thank you," Yuffie turned to look at him, she signalled him to sit next to her.

He sat next to her, "So did you and Aeris get to talk," 

"Yes, it really helped, I still feel really scared when I'm on my own, I just keep thinking that Reno is looking for me, to shut me up," she admitted, trying to be brave wasn't working.

"I won't let him hurt you, ever again," he hugged her tightly.

Yuffie blushed but wrapped her arms round him.

they sat together for a while, Vincent was about to get up and return to his room.

"No please, don't go," Yuffie pleaded

"Alright, but you should really get some rest," Vincent stroked her hair,

Yuffie pushed him down on to the bed, she rested her head on his chest and drifted off, Vincent stared at the sleeping girl, he smiled gently.

She was so beautiful, Vincent looked at her face, she looked so helpless in her sleep.

The thought of what Reno had done to her made him sick, it even made Chaos sick .

He had always hated Reno, since the day they had met in Wutai. Vincent had wanted to rescue Yuffie, but Reno just waltzed in like Mr. Hero and acted so cool, for a moment jealousy stirred in ex-Turk's blood, it soon past, he knew Yuffie hated Reno for what he did, He knew that he hated Reno for what he did, now he had to figure out how he felt for Yuffie.

He had always been physically attracted to her, but recently he started to feel deeply for her, about the way she feels, whether she felt save with him. Whether she was comfortable right now, or did she want to shift position, if she did was she afraid that he might leave her alone.

Vincent breathed deeply as Yuffie shifted in her sleep, as she did this one of her legs draped over both of his. Her unconscious move sent shivers of pleasure through his body. He gently pushed her leg off of him. Her being so close to him was tempting enough as it was, He knew that such thoughts, at this moment in Yuffie's life, might frighten her away, that was the last thing he wanted.

More thoughts of Reno stirred, angering Vincent.

"Prepare mother-fucker because this will be your last night of living, if that's what you call your sick way of existing," Vincent mumbled a threat to Reno, he had decided that Yuffie was not safe until Reno was dead.

If Yuffie felt safe maybe she could understand how Vincent felt about her. They could be together. Vincent smiled and fell slowly off to sleep.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Cloud's room

Aeris stared at Cloud's glowing eye's, those same eyes that captured her heart on the day they met her for the first time, Those eyes that still shot ecstasy through her veins every time she stared into there never ending mystery , he smiled softly and pulled her close to him.

Aeris's heart was beating faster than ever in her life, Cloud nuzzled her cheek with his nose, Aeris kissed his cheek gently.

Cloud nudged her head so he could kiss her tender lips, Aeris felt as though she could melt in his arms.

He ran his hands along her back and up her neck, he pushed his hands into the bundle of hair that rested on top of her head, he found the clip that was holding it up and removed it, her hair plummeted down like a waterfall, she pulled the hair band that was holding his hair back out and dropped it to the floor.

They resumed kissing, Cloud pulled slowly away and kissed along her cheeks to her earlobes, Aeris loved his softness.

she pushed him down gently on to the bed, she slowly undid the buttons on the front of his shirt, Cloud pulled the zip on the back of her dress down and bought her close up to him, he rested her on the bed and gently climbed on top of her.

"I love you so much," 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Cloud awoke with Aeris in his arms, a feeling he had wanted for so long.

Aeris breathed gently in her sleep.

Cloud smiled, last night was wonderful. He pulled the cover up over her shoulder to keep her warm.

He laid back and sighed contently.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Vincent awoke, he sleepily looked around his surroundings, he remembered that he had fallen asleep in Yuffie's room.

Yuffie where was she, Vincent thought. He looked at the place she was where the last time he saw her.

"Huh, Yuffie?" Vincent sat up frantically.

He noticed a envelop on the side of the bed, he picked it up and opened it.

He took out the letter, a small snip of Yuffie's hair fell onto his lap.

He started to read the Letter.

Dear Valentine, 

Come anywhere near me and I'll kill the girl, Leave us alone and I will "take care off her" in my own way. She should be with me! but if you interfere she will be killed, only after I've had my use of her of course,

Guess who,

XXX

Vincent's eyes widened, his throat was dry. He couldn't believe he had managed to snatch her from his arms.

He got of the bed and went to his room, He picked up the death penalty, loaded and attached it to the holster.

He walked out and stormed through the dinning room.

"Vincent, what's the matter?" Elmyra stood up from her chair.

Vincent said nothing he opened the front door and slammed it behind him.

"What the Fuck!" Cid joined Elmyra in surprise.

Marlene looked up at them, "Maybe he had to go get something," 

"You could say that!" Tifa walked into the room not taking her eyes off of the letter she had found in Yuffie's room.

They heard the buggy start up from outside.

"What's going on!?" Barret punched his fist on the table,

"He's always been a strange one," Nanki added 

"No!!" Tifa put the letter on the table and buried her head in her hands.

"What is it love," Elmyra asked gently.

"Its Yuffie, Reno's got her," Tifa sobbed.

Cloud and Aeris walked in, "What's going on I heard the car start?" Cloud scratched his neck.

Aeris walked over to Tifa, "What's the matter?" she asked gently, like her mother.

Tifa picked up the letter and handed it to Aeris.

She gasped and dropped it to the floor.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A/N: Oh dear, anyway it took me ages to decided what should happen to her so the rest of the story should follow on.

Please R&R.


	6. Help!

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own any Final Fantasy stuff.

* * *

Vincent's mind was a blur. How could this have happened? He didn't know where he was going, he just knew he had to get Yuffie.

He thought about the letter. Reno might hurt her if he was too bold in his rescue method. He had remembered seeing a gang of ex-shinra employees hanging around outside a warehouse in Kalm when they were there. "I'll go there,".

* * *

Yuffie sat in a dark, locked room, She didn't know where she was.

There were no windows in this room; she had managed to work out that she must have been in a basement.

"Yuffie," She heard someone whisper.

"Eh," She looked around frantically.

"Ah you are awake, sleepy head," Reno stepped forward and turned on the light.

"Reno, Why?" Yuffie was aware that she had been tranquillised and kidnapped, she had worked out that Reno was probably to blame for it.

"Now how are you?" He asked gently.

"HOW THE FUCK DO YOU THINK I AM!" Yuffie shouted she stood up and ran at him. He grabbed her wrists and held her still as he kissed her. She kneed him hard in the crouch.

"No, I won't let you hurt me again;" She smiled as he winced in pain

"I... Don't want to hurt you, I...I want us to get married," He stood up as the pain stopped. He had come up with that idea on the spot.

"Reno, I don't want to marry you, that is worse than raping me!" Yuffie stepped back.

"Ouch, Yuffie you'll see sense soon, You'll be staying here for along time my sweet, quite a lot of time to fall in love with me," Reno explained

"I don't think so," She snarled

"Oh who is going to save you, Your Little "friend" will stay away if he knows what's good for him," He grabbed her wrist and pulled her out of the room and down some stairs.

"You don't know Vincent, he'll kill you, he is more powerful than normal men," Yuffie threatened.

"Hmmm, Vincent is that his name? Vincent Valentine, how romantic, tough luck it could never be for the both of you, Yuffie Valentine sounds so perfect," Reno said sarcastically.

Reno pushed her into the lower basement and slammed the door behind her,

"I'll be back later, I'd seriously reconsider your attitude," He shouted through the door.

Yuffie walked over to the small bed; it was damp and cold, with no sheets or blankets. Yuffie lay down and sighed.

"I probably deserve this," She thought to herself.

"I don't deserve someone like Vincent; He should be with a pretty, nice, responsible girl,"

"Is this how it ends?" Her thoughts were bringing her down. Tears streamed down her face.

* * *

Vincent arrived at the warehouse and pulled the huge door open. He stormed through, he noticed it was set out with rooms, like a house.

He heard noise from a TV blurring. He entered that room. He saw the back of Elena and Rude's heads; they were sitting on the sofa

"Where is he?" Vincent growled. Rude span round his head quickly,

"Who are you, What do you want!"

"Where is Reno," Vincent grew impatient.

"I don't know," Rude turned round to the TV. Vincent's face grew red,

"I'd tell me if I were you,"

"Will you be quiet, Leni's trying to sleep," and Rude smiled to himself.

Vincent pulled Elena up off the sofa and held the Death penalty to her head. Rude stood up,

"Let her go," Elena stayed perfectly still in Vincent's arms.

"It's not nice is it, having important people taken away from you?" Vincent tightened his grip, He did not intend in hurting Elena and she knew this so she wasn't struggling; he just wanted to panic Rude so he would tell him where Reno was.

"Let her go and I'll tell you," Rude removed his sunglasses and glared at him.

"Tell me where he is!" Vincent shoved the gun against her head ,Elena shot threatening glares at Rude, she seemed more annoyed than scared

"Don't hurt Reno!" the blonde asked, Vincent ignored her

"I don't know, honestly, Rufus might know, he's through there;" Rude pointed to another door.

Vincent nodded and released Elena; Rude snatched her and held her tightly.

He gave Vincent a cold glare, he was gripping Elena, she looked up at Vincent. "Don't hurt him, please just don't hurt him!"

"Don't get involved Elena." Rude instructed.

She looked at Rude as if she was disgusted.

"Sorry, I just have to have her back," Vincent explained, Rude, who had nothing to do with Reno's little operation looked confused.He came to the conclusion that Reno was up to no good

Vincent pushed open the door that Rude had instructed him to.

Vincent scanned the room, he saw no one.

He heard some muffled screams; Vincent's senses were instructing him to look behind the desk. Rufus was tied to a chair; the chair was pushed over.

"Muffie, Me Mook Mer Mway," He shouted, Vincent couldn't work out what he was saying, he took the gag off from around his mouth.

"Yuffie, He took her away," Rufus gasped for air.

"Where, did you see her, is she harmed?" Vincent's eyes grew with fear.

"Yes, I saw her, she was unconscious, out there on a chair, I told him to let her go, he tied me up, said that I wasn't going to mess things up for him," Rufus wriggled, He was still tied up. Vincent untied him.

"Do you know where he went?" Vincent allowed Rufus to get up.

He stood silent for a while, "Midgar Ruins, an underground bunker or something, I over heard him talking,"

"Sector seven," Vincent remembered all of the underground passages there

"But my father, he destroyed sector seven," Rufus exclaimed.

"The whole of Midgar was destroyed, the rubble could have been blown away when meteor hit. It's the only thing I can think of," With that Vincent left.

Rude and Elena walked into the room, "I think that you'd better explain what our friend is up to, don't you?" Rude said. Rufus rushed past them.

"Don't hurt Him, he's ill, he needs help, Please don't kill him!" Elena screamed hysterically, the two other men tried to calm her down, "If you kill him, I'll kill you!" the woman threatened, but Vincent had already left.

* * *

Reno sat at a small table with his hands covering his face,

"This is what has become of the once proud Turk," Reno sighed. He remembered why he had become a Turk, to help out his family. They were dead now. His mother, father and brother. They were in Midgar the day Meteor hit, looking for him.

But he was out drowning his sorrows, all because of Shinra. He had a sister but she was an arrogant little bitch, she ran off to become a pilot when she was 17.

Maybe it worked out for her, but to Reno she was dead as well. If they were alive now they would be so ashamed.

It had just became apparent to Reno that he had snatched a 16-year-old girl from the arms of the man she loved.

He was 25 it was time for him to grow up and realize he can't have everything.

But could he do it? He had to know he stood up and left the room to go and speak to her. Water dripped on o the back of Yuffie's neck,

Where was she? She touched the wall. It was concrete, there was a metal frame around it but mostly it was concrete. Yuffie shivered, it was cold wet and smelled, the floor was covered in puddles where the water had leaked through the top.

"Maybe Vincent or the others won't come here; maybe this is what my life is supposed to be like?" Yuffie rolled onto her back.

"Vincent Valentine," the name played on her mind, she couldn't forget him or how warm he was when she slept with her head on his chest. She remembered waking up the night before; she tried to remember how he looked in his sleep. She closed her eyes.

He was smiling sweetly, the clouds had cleared and the moonlight was resting on his pallid skin, his hair dark was all over the place, it was like huge ink splash on white paper.

Her thoughts were abruptly put to end by the clink off boots on the floor. She sat up and stared at Reno. "Hi," he sat next to her Yuffie swallowed the lump of fear that had formed in her mouth. "You aren't happy are you?" Reno kept his eyes on the floor.

"No Reno, no I am not. You took me away from the people, that for the first time in my life could consider friends," Yuffie looked at him. Something had changed.

"Why don't you love me," Reno whimpered. "Oh Gawd don't cry you wimp!" Yuffie exclaimed.

"I didn't mean to hurt you, you just hurt my pride," Reno turned to face her. "Look, I just don't love you, I'm sorry, and you don't love me," Yuffie hugged her knees.

"Yes I do!" Reno shouted

"If you loved me you wouldn't have held me down and raped me," Yuffie felt her face getting red.

Yuffie had the perfect chance to kill him, but she didn't, she could see Reno wanted to talk, strangely she didn't feel so scared off him at the present moment.

"I'm sorry, maybe it's the drink or the drugs, I don't know anymore! You think that I'm proud of what I did, well I'm not, I just saw you there on your own and wanted to punish you," He started,

"Ever since I lost my job, I lost my life,"

"You could get another job," Yuffie suggested.

"Who is going to employ someone like me!" He shouted. Yuffie pitied him for a brief second.

"Start a fresh, get rid of the booze and the drugs and get a girlfriend and a job, and some help," Yuffie smiled slightly.

"I want you," Reno whispered

"It wouldn't work, I'm scared of you, but we could be friends?" Yuffie sighed

"I have friends; I want you as a girlfriend,"

"NO, Reno, no, you can't have me, you need someone new, I can help you find someone, you could love them like I love Vincent," Yuffie seemed to get through to him this time.

"Maybe, okay I'll get help, thank you, I needed a reality check," Reno accepted that it was better to have her in his life than not at all.

Yuffie gave him a small hug, but pulled away quickly.

"Yuffie Fortune sounds crap anyway," He joked.

Yuffie laughed slightly.

"Get away from her," A voice through gritted teeth grunted.

"Huh," Reno turned to look at where it had came from, The slight shadow from the small lights dotted around the staircase flickered against the wall.

"Vincent," Yuffie yelped He lifted his gun up and aimed at Reno.

"No, please don't shoot," Yuffie ran forward and lowered his gun

"What, why," Thoughts rushed through Vincent's mind, Maybe they had fallen in love while he was gone, No that couldn't happen, Could it? Yuffie explained to Vincent that they were going to help Reno, Vincent didn't say anything. He stared at Yuffie,

"Why?" Vincent was so afraid of losing her again.

"Because, its what he needs, Killing him won't do any good, please Vincent trust me," Yuffie looked up at him.

Vincent stared at Reno, He looked petrified, Elena's screams echoed in his head.

Vincent put the gun away and turned to leave, Yuffie followed and signalled for Reno to come along. Yuffie surprised to say the least at her surroundings, The tunnel she had been kept in was covered in plants. Around her were the strangest plants and animals she'd ever seen Vincent cut her observation short.

"Could I speak to you for a second?" He asked "Alone," He added They walked out of earshot of Reno.

"I don't trust him, look what he did to you," Vincent started

"I know, But, Vincent, he's lost, we have to help him, we helped other sufferers of meteor," Yuffie went on.

"I can't believe this; I come to rescue you because I... and you fall in love with the kidnapper, who by the way beat and raped you," Vincent shouted

"I am not in love with him, He just need's help," She shouted back Vincent winced in pain. He could see how it was going to go. She'd help Reno and all the time they spend together would bring them close and he would once again be forgotten. Vincent lay down in the grass and sighed.

"What's the matter?" Yuffie leant over him He stared up at her; she was more beautiful than anything he'd ever seen. He wasn't going to let her forget him. He grabbed her ankle and pulled her down on top of him. He laughed and ruffled her hair. Yuffie was confused, what went on inside the mind of Vincent Valentine? He kissed her on her forehead.

"I missed you. I was so worried," He whispered gently. Yuffie giggled, Vincent was so strange, but she loved him anyway.

"Sorry forgetting all crabby at you, I just think maybe Reno needs some support. I don't intend on doing it. Cloud and Aeris can help him or something," She looked at him closely.

He looked so longingly at her. Yuffie blushed. Vincent smiled, that was the most Yuffie thing she had said in ages. He noticed her blushing and almost instantly he started to blush as well.

"Yeah, Cloud and Aeris can help him," Vincent smiled from ear to ear.

Yuffie did the same, as she had never seen Vincent smile so charmingly. All the jealousy for Reno melted away from Vincent; he put his arms on Yuffie's back and hugged her tightly.

"Come on, Let's take him to Cloud and Aeris," Vincent stood up and helped Yuffie to her feet. Yuffie waved Reno over.

Vincent lead them to wear he ha parked the buggy. Yuffie ran forward,

"I get front seat!"

Vincent smiled, That was the Yuffie he knew, he intended to keep an eye on Reno, to make sure he didn't hurt her ever again, If he did, well Vincent could not hold himself or Chaos responsible for what he might do.

* * *

A/N: I've made a few changes to this chapter! Please R&R. Next Chapter: Who will help Reno when Cloud and Aeris refuse because they want to spend some alone time together........ Tifa? Surely not.


	7. Two heads are better than one

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy things or people, you know the drill.

A/N: Sorry I've been away soooooooooo long for anyone that missed me.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Cloud, Cloud, could you come here for a second?" Aeris called. 

"Yes Aeris, is anything the matter?" Cloud couldn't help but smile at her.

"That was Vincent, he said he had got Yuffie and then mumbled something about something." She explained

"Well that's great!" Cloud exclaimed hugging her tightly.

"Well, yes and I thought now everyone's okay we could maybe go for a romantic picnic?" She suggested holding the basket of food up.

"I'd like that, we finally have time to be together." Cloud kissed her cheek.

Aeris smiled happily, "Well lets go!" She exclaimed, grabbing his hand. She pulled him to the door.

Before she had the chance to open it the bell rang.

She opened the door to see Yuffie, Vincent and Reno.

The light died in her eyes. She had already guessed why he had been bought along.

The whole group came to investigate and welcome home Yuffie.

She had a lot of explaining to do about why HE was here.

She explained and everyone, after a lot of persuading, they agreed to her idea.

All except Cloud and Aeris.

"Yuffie, I'd really like to help but, Cloud and I have a lot of catching up to do." Aeris said blushing, she felt bad.

"Ohh, I'm sorry Aeris, I didn't think about that." Yuffie felt guilty for even thinking it.

every one sat in silence.

"Uh, excuse me but could I help?" Tifa spoke up finally, she felt useless and longed to help the group like she had done in the past.

"Would you?" Yuffie gasped.

"Well if Reno doesn't mind, I'm not exactly leader material but I could offer some advice." Tifa smiled

"Did you hear that, see not all is lost." Yuffie smiled as she poked Reno on the nose.

He felt like an idiot, "Thank you, you are all so forgiving, I think I have already learnt a lot."

Aeris smiled, maybe this was a good idea.

They were soon off on their picnic.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Yuffie and Vincent had also decided to take a walk.

"Can you believe Tifa? I would have thought she would have been the last person I would have expected to offer help to Reno!" Yuffie wondered aloud.

"Why? Tifa's a very caring person." Vincent replied.

"Yeah, I never felt like she truly liked me though." Yuffie sighed.

"I'm sure she does, people just find it hard to trust people twice." Vincent said softly, he didn't want to hurt her.

"Oh, yeah....." She suddenly felt very alone.

"Damn!" Vincent thought to himself, He could see Yuffie was in a horrible lonely place, Vincent knew that place all to well.

"But I trust you Yuffie." He whispered.

"I know, Thank you Vincent." Yuffie smiled.

Vincent smiled back.

They continued to walk on through the park.

"Vincent, I like that name, what's your middle name?" Yuffie decided to change the subject.

"Do you promise not to laugh if I tell you?" Vincent sighed

"I promise, now come on tell me?" Yuffie smiled, this was an interesting game.

"My name is Vincent Victor Valentine." He blushed

"That's cool, V's suit you." Yuffie looked up at him.

"You really think so, Kids at school used to make fun of me and call me a posh snob." Vincent blushed even more.

"Awwwww, I could never imagine anyone picking on you." Yuffie commented.

"They wouldn't now." Vincent smiled tapping his gun.

She smiled "Yeah, they would get a serious butt kicking," Yuffie joked waving her shuriken around. 

Vincent smiled widely at her. He loved the fact she was returning to normal. He would let anything bad happen to her ever again.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"So Reno, what do you want to talk about?" Tifa started, she was beginning to regret volunteering.

"Uh, I don't know." He stuttered.

"Why don't you tell me why you feel so, um, depressed." Tifa didn't know what words to use.

"I had a job, which I loved." Reno sighed he had to let people help him.

"Reno, Shinra was a strong company but it's gone now." Tifa explained

Reno looked away, this wasn't helping.

"Uh, what I mean is that even if things are gone it doesn't always mean its gone forever, If you wanted you could help to rebuild the company." Tifa changed her approach.

Reno's attention was caught once more. "How?"

"Well you and Rufus and Reeve and the other Turks, well what I mean is that you could work together to remake ShinRa, but with new rules so it won't cause suffering." Tifa went on.

"I don't know if we can." Reno replied.

"Do you truly desire to be a really Turk, working for a better, cleaner world. A better cleaner ShinRa?" Tifa was filled with idea's.

"Yes, I really do, More than anything!" Reno's eyes were filled with help.

"Then look around you Reno, Look at North Corel, all this was achieved by dreams and people working together." Tifa opened the window for Reno to look.

"Do you really think it would work?" Reno stared out over the beautiful town.

"You could get the scientist back together, they could find a healthy way to produce power." Tifa exclaimed

"I think it could happen." Reno's mind was turning.

"Could? I know it will. I had a lot idea's about how ShinRa could create power without destroying the planet. But I was an AVALANCHE member and a mere bar maid." Tifa sighed.

"Really, well if you tell me we could get down some preliminary idea's now." Reno said turning to face her.

"You'd really listen to me?" Tifa venerably asked.

"Of course, you've listened to me and I know not everything will be solved in one day but I think with your help I'm of to quite the start." Reno looked back out over the town.

Tifa smiled, it was good to be listened to. 

"Well I'll get some paper and a pen and we can write down some idea's!" Tifa said going through a draw and pulling the said items out.

Reno rushed over to the table and sat down. They were soon on a roll with plan's.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Aeris that was the best picnic ever!" Cloud exclaimed. he was leaning against a tree with Aeris on his lap.

"I'm glad you enjoyed it." She giggled.

Cloud twisted his finger around one of her bangs and let it twirl out.

Aeris did the same to his main spike.

"Teehee, there's so much gel, My hands stuck!" Aeris teased.

Cloud laughed and tickled her ribs.

Aeris jumped up and ran behind the tree. 

Cloud got up and snuck around trying to get her of guard.

He was greeted by a bundle of Autumn leaves in his face.

He picked some up and threw them at her.

She squealed as they stuck to her.

The wind blew hard blowing the leaves away and pushing Cloud close to her.

He hugged her tightly and swept her of her feet, The wind blew around them lifting the leaves so they span around them.

"The planet is happy that were finally together." Aeris smiled.

"Thank the planet for giving me the greatest gift in the world, you." Cloud asked.

"The planet knew it would make me happy, and you happy and itself happy, it's our love story." Aeris mused

"The sweetest, most perfect one ever told." Cloud added.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A/N: sorry for the soppy ending, I just felt like doing something lovey Dovey. I hope you like!

Please R&R.


	8. I won't give up on you

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy things or people, you know the drill.

* * *

Tifa and Reno were making plans for their new Shinra.

"This is crazy, we'll never be able to do all of this." Reno sighed.

Tifa took his hand in hers "It's going to take time, but in the end it will be worth all the work."

He stared into her redish brown eyes. Tifa blushed and looked down. "Why am I feeling like this?" Tifa thought to herself, she couldn't figure it out, Reno had done really bad things. Her thoughts were interrupted by a huge smash on the door.

They ignored it and continued talking.

"What about money?" He asked, followed by another smash on door.

Tifa looked concerned, "Money isn't a problem, I assure you, But what is that noice?"

Suddenly the door broke and opened to reveal a beaten up Elena, she ran into the house and lunged at Reno.

"Why Did you do it you stupid bastard!!" She flew at him knocking him off the chair and onto the floor.

She straddled him and began slapping him across the face.

Tifa got up and raised her fist, she had to help him, that's what she had promised.

"NO! Don't hurt her." Reno shrieked, he grabbed Elena and rolled over so he was on top of her, Tifa couldn't stop, she punched Reno in the shoulder. He winced slightly but it didn't hurt to much.

Tifa was so confused.

Reno got up and picked up Elena.

"Wutain guards came and attacked us! They're saying that you raped their princess!" Elena shouted.

"Where are Rufus and Rude?" He asked.

"They got rid of all the guards, then Rude said that we all had to stay away from you because you are bad news, so I ran off!" Elena spoke up in a small voice.

"I'm glad you're safe, but this is all my fault." Reno clenched his fists. "Rude will be so worried about you!"

She scoffed, "He treats me like a child! I got here all on my own, I don't need him smothering me, I can't stand it!"

"I know, but he loves you, he'll blame me for all of this and you have to calm down okay?." Reno sat back down on his chair, Tifa had got him an ice pack for his lip, Elena had cut it when she attacked him.

"It was my decision to leave ......................I'm sorry I hit you sir, I was just so angry." Elena sat down in the chair that Tifa had been sitting in.

Tifa pulled up a chair and sat in silence.

"You don't have to call me sir now." Reno replied, he wasn't worthy of her respect anymore.

Elena was holding the ice pack against Reno's face, She half smiled.

"Do you want me to get you anything, I mean like a potion or something." Tifa spoke up.

"No I'm alright, but could you get some for Elena." He replied, noticing that she had acquired some wounds of her own, probably from the guards.

Tifa smiled and nodded, she was feeling surprisingly jealous of the attention that the young blonde woman was receiving.

"What is all this." Elena asked as she noticed the paper's on the table.

"Tifa had an idea, we're going to rebuild Shinra." Reno said, he hoped Elena would help.

"Really! Oh that's great! Can I get a job working for you?" Elena's bright brown eyes sparkled with the excitement and eagerness that she had when she was in the Turks.

It bought back memories for Reno, Elena would always be so psyched before missions.

"Yeah, You can be vice president if you want to!" He couldn't help smiling at her.

Tifa was taken back by how gorgeous he looked when he smiled like that. It was a strange sight for her, her former enemies, the feared assassins, smiling at each other as if they were the best of buddies.

"I guess there is more too people than meets the eye." Tifa thought again.

"Really, you'd trust ditzy lil' Elena with a position like that?!" She asked.

"Of course, I think you'd do a great job." Reno assured her.

"What about Tifa, what do you want to do?" Elena asked.

Reno felt bad, he had been showering attention on Elena and had forgotten about Tifa's kindness to him. He turned to look at her.

"Um I don't really know, what sort of things could I do." She replied.

"How about Head of weapons." Elena spoke up.

"Hmmm, I don't think that that one is right for Tifa, and we could always get Scarlet back." Reno concluded.

"Ohh, did you not hear about what happened to Scarlet, It turns out that the affair she had with Tseng landed her pregnant, So she has to raise the child all by herself. She eventually moved to Wutai so Tseng's sister could help her out and now she denies having any connection to Shinra." Elena said.

"You knew about Scarlet and Tseng, I always tried to keep that from you." Reno reflected.

"I know you did, but we're going off the point, we need to find the perfect position for Tifa."

"What about head of catering? people always talk about your legendary cooking abilities." Reno asked.

"I like the sound of that! and do people really talk about my cooking?" Tifa was flattered.

Reno nodded.

"What da Blazes happen' to my door!" Barret shouted as he came into the room.

"Oop's, I'm so sorry, I'll get it fixed and pay for all the damage, really I'm so sorry." Elena panicked and tried to apologize, Her rage had caused her to act irrationally.

She looked up at Barret, the poor little, blonde woman was terrified.

"What's she doin' here! we got enough Turks already." He asked Tifa.

Marlene playfully punched Barret's leg. "Don't shout papa, you are scarin' her." She scolded him.

"Barret, Elena's here to help, and you know she's harmless." Tifa whispered to him.

Elmyra also came into the room.

"Are you alright dear? he may act tough but he's a puppy under it all." She whispered to Elena, she smiled gratefully.

"Me and Myra have to go do grocery shoppin, so would you mind watchin' Marlene?" Barret asked, he decided to drop the Elena situation, Elmyra would force him to let her stay anyway.

"That's okay, she is no trouble." Tifa replied.

"Thanks Tiff, but are you going to be okay with red and blondie?" He asked.

"I'll be fine!! Now go and don't forget to buy something for lunch." She smiled. The two of them left.

" 'Scuse me lady, but will you come play with me?" Marlene asked as she tugged on Elena's hand.

Elena looked at Tifa to see if it was alright, Tifa nodded.

"Sure I'd love too." Elena lifted up Marlene.

Tifa sat back down with Reno.

"I'm sorry she caused you so much trouble." He said.

"It's okay, the door can be fixed. I'm sorry I punched you, how is your shoulder?" Tifa asked.

"Yeah I'm fine, but lets get back to planning our new company." Reno was excited about it now.

Tifa smiled and they began work.

* * *

"So, what's you're name?" Marlene said.

"It's Elena."

"I think that is the prettiest name, do you wanna know why, its because my mummy was called Eleanor, that's like Elena isn't it, but she died." Marlene handed Elena a doll to play with.

"I'm sorry, my mom died when I was little too." the two girls sat in silence a minute.

"So is that man your husband?" Marlene abruptly asked.

Elena was lying on her stomach brushing the doll's hair. "You mean Reno, Hahaha, No we aren't married, we just used to work together."

"What did you do for a job?" Marlene asked.

Elena didn't want to tell Marlene the nasty things that she did as a Turk,

"Um, We sold Ice cream's and milkshakes." she lied.

"Wow, that sound's like a great job, I bet you had lots of fun. But why was my papa so mad at you?"

"Man, you ask a lot of questions!" Elena thought.

"He was angry, because, because....oh one day he came to our store but we were all out of his favourite flavour of ice cream!" Elena covered.

"That sounds like my papa alright! So why did you stop making Ice cream?" Marlene continued questioning.

"Um because soon it will be winter, and no one wants Ice cream in winter." Elena answered, she was coming up with excuses quickly.

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

"Well sort of, but I ran away from him........" Elena remembered how she had abandoned Rude and Rufus.

"Why did you run away, did he not like you're ice cream?"

"No its not that." Elena chuckled, Marlene was so innocent. "He said horrible things about Reno, and us Ice cream making people have to stick together and not give up on each other. That's what I think anyway."

"I think that its nice you came to find your friend, and I bet next summer you'll make even more ice cream together!" Marlene assured her.

Elena could help but laugh, Everything seemed so simple to Marlene, it was so admirable in her eyes.

* * *

"Do you think we should head back now?" Yuffie asked Vincent.

"If you want too, I'm not bothered." He replied.

"I think we should check how Tifa's doing, It was harsh of me to dump Reno on her."

"I still don't trust that guy." Vincent said.

"You don't have to trust him, just trust me and my judgement." Yuffie reassured him.

"Alright, if you say so." He gave in, "Come on lets go."

Yuffie held on to his hand as they walked, Vincent smiled, it was good to have her back.

"I bet they're making lunch, I'm starving!" Yuffie announced

"Look its Barret and Elmyra, they've got a lot of bags, lets go and help." Vincent suggested.

Yuffie rolled her eyes, "Oh alright, If we have too." She joked.

They helped with the shopping and walked towards the house.

"Hey, what happened to the door?" Yuffie asked.

"Its long story." Elmyra said, she noticed that Barret was getting a little worked up again, so it was best not to talk about it.

Tifa and Reno were still sitting at the table discussing their idea's she

"We're back." Barret called out. Marlene came out of her room to greet him.

Elena came with her. Barret shot her a cold look and then another to Reno.

"Oh papa, they'll have your favourite ice cream some day." Marlene said as she noticed what he had done.

Everyone looked confused, Elena giggled as she sat down next to Reno.

"What have you been telling her?" He whispered.

"Don't worry about it." She replied.

"What are you doing here?" Yuffie asked.

"I came to find Reno after we got attacked by Wutain guards." She replied.

"Uh-oh, I'll talk to Godo." Yuffie sighed, word of what had happened must have reached him by now, she took her PHS and went into her bedroom.

Vincent walked over to Elena, "Look, I'm really sorry about earlier, I just had to make Rude see that I needed to find Yuffie."

"It's alright really, I knew you wouldn't really hurt me, You aren't a bad guy." She replied.

"So where is Rude, I want to apologize to him as well." Vincent looked around the room.

"I ran away from him." She said quietly.

" May I ask why?" Vincent asked, Rude acted so protectively of her earlier.

"It's none of your business! But if you must know its because he's a backstabber and he's kinda boring." she snapped.

Vincent was surprised. "I thought you loved him?"

"No way! He hardly ever says anything and he always smothers me, but not in the good passionate way, In the boring cuddly way."

Reno laughed at this, "You'd never guess that by looking at him."

Vincent's attention was lost in this conversation. Yuffie came out of the room looking incredibly triumphant.

"I told him it was all lies and that he's soooo gullible!" She sighed.

Reno and Elena were privately talking about something, It seemed important so Tifa decided to start making lunch for everyone.

She was happy that she could help Reno, she looked over at him as she started to cook the soup Barret had bought.

Elena seemed to be trying to convince him about something, He looked thoughtful for a while and then nodded. Elena seemed overjoyed about this, she leapt up and hugged him tightly, She then sat down on his lap.

Tifa frowned, "What a floozy, she just abandoned her boyfriend and now she's all over his ex-best friend."

Tifa felt bad, Elena had been so nice to her and she'd kept Marlene amused while they worked. But it didn't change the fact that she was sitting on Reno.

"Elena could you help me serve this food please." Tifa called out.

Elena nodded and got up. "Where do you want me to put these." She asked as she picked up the tray with all the bowls of soup on."

"Just put them on the table in the dinning room please." Tifa said with a smile.

Elena smiled back, she carried the tray carefully through to the dinning room, She didn't know that Red XIII had came into the house and was sleeping on the floor. Poor Elena tripped and the bowls went flying. They crashed down around her, covering her in soup.

She bit her lip, she was going to be so much trouble .

"I'm sorry Miss." Red XIII spoke up, She screamed at the fact the large dog was talking.

The others came into the room and stood their with shocked looks on their faces.

Elena hung her head, she got up and began to clean up.

"I'm sorry." She murmured.

Aeris walked up behind the group that had formed around Elena, she peered over Yuffie's shoulder and burst out laughing.

Cloud was still inspecting the broken door, Aeris waved him over.

"It look's like we missed an interesting day." She commented.

"Don't worry about it." Elmyra said to Elena, "You go and take a shower and get cleaned up, I'll take care of this."

Elena thanked her and quickly exited the room, looking terribly embarrassed.

Luckily they had wood flooring and it took only a matter of minutes to clean up.

"I told you she was going to be trouble." Barret whispered.

"Oh leave the poor thing alone." Elmyra replied.

Tifa went back into the kitchen to make some more food.

Elena showered and wrapped a towel around herself. She would have to go and ask if she could borrow some clothes as she had not packed any.

Tifa agreed to lend her the blue dress that she had worn to Don Corneo's mansion, It wasn't totally appropriate but it was all she had to give her.

They all sat and ate together, switching stories about what they had done that day. Tifa chatted away about all the plans they had made.

Cloud was happy that Tifa had cheered up, she'd been really quiet for along time now.

Elena entered the room, she kept a careful eye on where Red XIII was so she didn't trip. Everyone seemed to have forgotten about what she had done, so she tried to sneak in unnoticed.

"Come and sit with me!" Marlene waved her over.

All of the boys gawked at her in the dress, this made her feel terribly uncomfortable.

Elmyra smacked Barret's arm, Aeris smacked Cloud on the head, Yuffie elbowed Vincent, Tifa felt left out so she clipped Reno round the ear.

Everyone laughed out loud. Elena crossed her arms around her chest and blushed deeply.

"Don't you the food?" Tifa asked Cloud and Aeris.

"No its delicious as always Tifa, its just we ate a lot on our picnic." Aeris replied.

Cloud was staring at Aeris, it still felt like a dream to him, seeing her again, hearing her talk.

She turned to face him and smiled. Everybody looked so happy as they sat around the table, it was a complete contrast to the party that they had had where everyone was being cruel to each other.

* * *

After Lunch Reno stepped out for a cigarette, Elena shortly followed as she felt intimidated by all of the AVALANCHE members.

"Rude will come looking for me." Elena spoke up sadly to Reno.

"He can't take you, you don't belong to him." He said confidently

"I know, but if, if, things do turn ugly will you help me, I feel like a jerk asking you to help me and betray Rude." She felt weak and pathetic.

"Elena, listen to me, you came and found me and although you gave me a good pounding I know you did it to stand by me, even after all I've done........" He trailed off.

"Doing bad things doesn't mean you are a bad person, Sometimes things just happen. But it doesn't change the fact you are Reno, and Reno saved my butt on many occasions." She philosophized.

"That didn't make any sense, but I understand what you're trying to say. I'll promise I won't let Rude take you away, if you promise to stop acting like a princess that needs protecting, because you're better than that and I know how strong you can be." He held out his hand to signify that this was a deal.

Elena nodded and shook his hand. "It's a deal!"

"Lets go back inside, I think Tifa is waiting for me and you'll get cold if you sit outside in that outfit." He teased.

"Hey Reno, you didn't smoke?" Elena noticed that he had not lit his cigarette.

"It's strange, I suppose I just don't feel like it now." He shrugged and put it back in the box.

She was surprised, all Reno used to do at the warehouse was smoke and drink. Maybe getting away from that place was the best thing for the both of them.

* * *

Please review for me, thanks in advance.


	9. Pancakes

Disclaimer: You know the drill, I don't own anything Final Fantasy.

* * *

The next morning Tifa awoke to the sound of an electric saw. She rubbed her head.

"What is that terrible noice." She checked her alarm clock, it was about 9am.

Tifa picked up her dressing gown and went to investigate. Reno stepped out of the room he had been given to stay in.

Tifa blushed, he was fully dressed while she was in a bathrobe.

"Going to investigate?" He questioned.

She nodded, "That noice is driving me mad!"

They walked through into the living room, Cid and Barret were standing in the door way that led to the garden.

"Hey Tiff, check out construction Barbie." Cid chuckled.

Reno and Tifa went out into the garden.

"What are you doing Lena?" Reno asked. Elena was chain sawing a piece of wood down.

Her own clothes had been washed so she had changed, she was wearing jeans and had her shirt tied up revealing her waist, she had her finger less gloves on to protect her hands whilst sawing. She had also tied her short hair up, which didn't seem to be doing any good as the front bit was still hanging in front of her face.

Elena stopped sawing and wiped her forehead with her arm.

"Fixing the door of course!" She replied as if it were obvious.

Tifa was touched by this, she didn't think Elena would do it herself.

"I didn't know you were so good at repairs!" She said sounding impressed.

"Well you know, I'm just full of surprises!" Elena said proudly.

"Be careful with that saw, and wear these so you don't get dust in your eyes." Reno advised as he put his sunglasses on her, his hair flopped over his face.

"Thanks Reno, do I look cool?" She asked.

Tifa and Reno nodded in unison. Elena smiled and went back to work.

"Fancy some breakfast?" Tifa asked the men.

"Yes, that sounds £$%%" great Tifa!" Cid said happily.

They went back inside.

Barret came over to talk to Tifa, "Maybe I was too hard on her." he said softly.

Tifa looked out the window, There was something unusual about Elena, she had the ability to win anyone over. "I don't know how she does it." she thought.

"So how about pancakes?" Tifa said as she began to get food out.

Aeris came out of her and Cloud's bedroom.

"Oh goody, did I hear pancakes!!" Aeris announced.

"Yup, you sure did, do you want to help me make them?!" Tifa replied smiling at her friend.

Aeris nodded, Tifa handed her an apron and they began cooking. Aeris was so pleased that Tifa wasn't angry at her anymore, "Just like old times." She thought, "but with a few differences." she added as she noticed Elena now sanding down the door.

Yuffie got up out of bed and dressed, she could smell delicious food. She ran out of her room quickly.

"I wonder if Vincent's up?" She stopped in her tracks and ran backwards down the hall to Vince's room.

She knocked on his door.

"Who is it." He asked.

"Its Yuffie!" She replied.

"I can't come out."

"Why not?" She asked sounding confused.

"Because everyone will laugh."

"Vince, what is going on, tell me now."

Vincent stuck his arm around the door and pulled Yuffie in.

She burst out laughing, "What happened to your hair."

"I don't know, I just woke up and it looked like this." Vincent sighed as he continued trying to brush his hair down, it had gone static and frizzy.

"I'll fix it later, but right now I want breakfast." she promised, she tied his hair back into a tight ponytail so no one would notice his hair disaster.

They joined the others in the living room/ kitchen area.

Yuffie peered out the door the way in the same way the others had done, Elena waved to them. Yuffie waved back.

"I bet her chainsaw could sort out your hair." She whispered to Vincent.

Vincent didn't look impressed, "It's not funny, It must be the moisture in the air."

Yuffie laughed "I would never imagined you fussing over your hair."

Vincent poked her nose.

Aeris delivered the pancakes, she put them on the coffee table in the living room.

She glanced around the room, "Lazy Cloud, he must still be sleeping!" Aeris went off to wake him up.

When she returned, the pancakes had gone, fortunately Tifa bought some more in.

Cloud sleepily sat down and began eating.

Elena came through the house carrying the door, she drilled it in place and tested it.

"Yes, It works!" She shouted happily. "It just needs painting now."

"Take a break for breakfast, and I bet Marlene would like to help you paint." Barret called over to her.

Elena smiled and nodded, she had gained Barret acceptance.

"Umm These are great." she said as she tucked in.

Marlene came into the room, riding on Red XIII's, back.

"Wow, did you do all that?" Marlene asked as jumped of him and sat down with Elena, she had grown very fond of the ex-Turk.

"Yes I did, and you can help me paint it if you want?" Elena answered as she served Marlene some pancakes.

"Really, Cool!!! I love painting." she replied excitedly.

The little girl got up on to the sofa and hugged the blonde.

Tifa and Aeris came to join the rest of the group.

"You did a great job!" Aeris complemented as she ate.

"These pancakes are yummy Aunty Tifa and Flower lady." Marlene announced.

"What do you think Cloud?" Aeris asked.

"ZZzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz" Cloud replied, he had fallen asleep on the sofa.

"Aeris! you must have worn him out last night." Cid said with a wink.

She blushed. "Oh Cid! Don't be so crude."

After breakfast everyone went to do their own things, except for Cloud who was still sleeping.

* * *

"Right! time for 'operation fix Vincent's hair'!" Yuffie said when they were back in his room.

She took out the hair band and began brushing it, she wasn't getting anywhere.

"I'll have to wash it, come on." She pulled him into the bath room quickly so no one would see.

"Heheheheheh, A little of this and a splash of that!" Yuffie commentated as she poured a number of shampoo's and conditioners on his head.

"Yuf, are you sure you know what you're doing?" He asked.

"Of course, you can tell by my hair that I know what I'm doing." Yuffie flicked her hair.

"It does look nice." Vincent replied.

Yuffie smiled and rinsed off his hair.

They ran back into his room.

"Okay, now I'm going to do something drastic, but I assure you It will look good." Yuffie warned.

"What are you going to...." He was interrupted by the sound of hair falling on the floor.

"Arghh, you cut my hair!!" Vince picked up the large chunk of hair.

"Come on, sit down or I'll give you a perm." she joked.

She snipped away at his hair, it was a lot more fun than it should have been.

When she was finished, she turned him round to inspect her work. Yuffie brushed the remaining hair of his shoulder's.

"You look so good, I'm a genius." Yuffie said proudly, Vincent turned to look in the mirror.

The front part of his hair was still quite long and still shaped his face, but it was a lot shorter at the back. It looked similar to the way he had it when he was a Turk.

"Do you really think it looks okay?" He asked.

"Yes, I really like it!" Yuffie said looking up at him.

"Thank you Yuffie." He lifted her up and hugged her.

Yuffie laughed and hugged him back.

* * *

Elena and Marlene stood back and looked at their work.

"Are you sure your dad said it was okay to paint it red?" Elena asked.

"Well sorta, But I think it looks great in red."

"Me too." Elena agreed. Marlene giggled.

"What's so funny?"

"You have paint on your cheek." Marlene pointed up at her.

"Oh no really!! But you know, you have paint right here." Elena said as she lent down and smudged paint on her nose.

"Hey." she giggled.

"Lets go get cleaned up." Elena suggested.

Marlene nodded in agreement.

They went into the house and washed the paint off.

Marlene wondered off to find Elmyra.

Elena came into the living room and sat down on the sofa. Cloud had gotten up by now and dressed.

"Thank you for doing that Elena, It was really nice of you." He said.

"No problem." She smiled.

"Cloud ? I hope you don't mind me asking, but, I mean, didn't Aeris.........die?" She said delicately.

"I used a very powerful Materia to bring her back." He replied.

"Oh wow, I never imagined that there would be a Materia like that!" Elena gasped.

Cloud pulled the Materia out of his shirt, he kept it on a necklace as a memory of what he had done.

The shiny Materia reflected in her eyes.

"If you want you can use it to...... well you know." Cloud handed it to her. She stared at it in wonder, Elena snapped back into reality.

"Oh thank you so much, but I couldn't, too much has happened and I've moved on, things would be way too complicated, also I feel that Tseng is happy dead."

Cloud gave her a confused look.

"I know that sounds weird, but that's what I feel." she handed the Materia back to Cloud. "And it would be too hard on his child, it wouldn't understand how his dad came back from dead."

"Yeah, I heard about that." Cloud said thoughtfully.

"I wonder where Reno went?" Elena thought as she glanced around.

Vincent and Yuffie came out of his room.

Cloud and Elena stared at him in amazement.

"You had a hair cut." Cloud stated.

"It looks cool." Elena complemented.

"Yuffie did it." Vincent replied.

"It seems like everyone is revealing their hidden talent's today." Cloud mused.

"Wow, nice hair Vincent. Umm..... Elena there is someone here to see you." Aeris said as she joined them.

Elena was dreading this, she stood up and walked outside.

* * *

Taking a few deep breath's, she stepped out into the cool autumn sun.

Rude was standing in front of her.

"I thought I would find you here." He said calmly.

He stood there staring, she had Reno's sunglasses on her head.

Rude stepped forward and took them off her. She snatched them back and put them back on her head. Some where along the line Elena had surpassed Rude's strength and speed. He never noticed how powerful she had become.

"Come back with me, please." He asked.

"I'm sorry, but I can't do that."

"Elena, I've been so worried about you....." He began

"That's exactly it, you don't understand me at all." Elena sighed.

"But I love you." Rude pleaded.

"No you don't, you love the me that you want me to be."

"You're talking crap........" Rude said losing his cool slightly.

"Goodbye." She said as she leant forward and kissed his cheek.

"Don't walk away from me!" Rude shouted.

Elena ignored him, he grabbed hold of her wrist and pulled her back.

"What you and Rufus said about Reno made me feel sick, I can't even look at you. How on earth do you expect me to love you!?" Elena said bitterly.

"But....He's a waste of space now, he's not like he was before." Rude started again.

"Rude, you don't have a clue what your going on about. Reno's going to be okay, If I were you I'd worry about my own life." Elena tried to yank her hand away, he squeezed her arm tightly, causing her to gasp in pain.

"I won't let you go." He said sounding determined.

"I preferred it when you hardly said a word." Elena whimpered, she remembered her conversation she had had with Reno about being strong, Her body tensed and she successfully yanked her arm free.

"What he did was wrong and evil." Rude begged her.

"Wrong and evil are just words, And why do you think you know whats right, you've done bad things as well. Now go back to your dingy little warehouse and leave me alone."

"I'm not leaving without you." Rude didn't seem to be hearing her.

"Yes you are, because I'm not yours to take." with that she walked into the house.

* * *

Yuffie had been watching out the window. Rude stood outside for a while and then just turned and walked off, he looked more angry and disappointed than upset.

"He's gone." She announced.

Elena felt so relieved.

Tifa and Reno entered the room, they had been sitting in the garden.

"Rude was just here." Cloud told them.

"I got rid of him." Elena told him, "It was like I thought, he wanted to take me back with him."

"I'm proud of you for standing up to him, I knew you could do it." Reno said as he high fived her.

Elena felt proud of herself now, she couldn't help but show her excitement, she felt she was really free now. Elena jumped up, Reno caught her and held her up by her hips, she put her hands on his shoulders to keep balance.

"Hahahahaha, I told him everything, I feels great to get it off my chest!"

"That's my girl!" Reno said as he put her down and hugged her.

Tifa looked away to stop herself from feeling jealous, she didn't understand how they could have bonded so quickly, her thoughts were interrupted when she noticed Vincent.

"That's a nice look for you." she said to him.

Vincent rubbed the back of his neck and blushed slightly, he wasn't used to all the attention he was receiving.

"We should celebrate!" Yuffie suggested, she hadn't really enjoyed the last party that they had had so she was hoping for a better one to erase the memory.

"Celebrate Vincent's hair?" Aeris asked.

"Yeah and because we have nothing else to do."

"That's a good point." Tifa added.

"Alright, I'm in a partying kind of mood!" Aeris agreed that it was a good idea.

"Could it be like a bonfire party, with fireworks and marshmallows?" Tifa asked.

"That would be appropriate as it is autumn." Vincent added, he wasn't really a party person, but this could be fun.

Tifa wanted to know what Reno thought, he still had his arms around Elena.

"What do you think, feel like partying?" Tifa asked.

"Will there be beer?" he joked.

Tifa laughed, "Of course."

Yuffie was seeing another side to her attacker, he was less with the crazy and more with the fun. She no longer feared him, she hadn't forgiven him and probably never would, but she was pleased to see that her theory was working.

* * *

A/N: please review.


	10. Heart shaped cookies

Disclaimer: I don't own Final fantasy or anything related to it.  
  
A/N: Thank you so much to my reviewers, I just love getting reviews! I can't wait to get more.

* * *

Aeris, Yuffie, Vincent, Cloud and Barret were busily put up decorations in the garden. Cid and Red XIII were collecting wood to build a bonfire. Tifa was mixing cocktails and cooking food, while Elena and Reno assisted her.  
  
"If you drop me your in big trouble!" Yuffie stated as Vincent put her on his shoulders, they were putting up the lantern lights.

"I promise I won't drop you." Vincent stated.

She attached the lights and tested them. "Great, they work!" Vincent lifted her down; they both looked into each others eyes for a moment and then quickly glanced away.

Tifa noticed this through the window in the kitchen. "Aww, looks like love is in the air." She said aloud, Tifa turned to see what Elena and Reno thought.

Elena was squirting whipped cream at Reno, while he retaliated by pelting her with chocolate chips.

Tifa stood still, she was completely gob smacked. "What are you doing?!"

"He started it." Elena said.

"Did not." Reno protested.

"Did so!"

"Na ah"

"Ya ha."

The whipped cream can ran dry.

"Ha-ha, now the tables have turned." Reno said as he advanced towards her with a bottle of chocolate sauce in hand.

"No, nothing gets out chocolate! I surrender, I surrender!" She shrieked and fell to her knees in a begging position.

"Make yourself useful while you're down there." Reno teased.

Elena blushed, "You are so easily distracted!" She said as she jumped up and ruffled his hair. She snatched the chocolate sauce off him and squirted it on his face.

"Oh you're a sneaky one Elena!" he said as he tried to wipe it off. "But you didn't count on the power of ketchup!"

"Enough! Stop attacking each other with food and help me make some mini pizzas." Tifa ordered.

They were definitely a bad influence on each other.

"Now you've gone and got us in trouble." Elena whispered sarcastically, causing Reno to burst out laughing. It was fun playing with Elena; Reno had been restraining himself recently, and hadn't dared to step out of line. But with Elena he couldn't help being his real, fun loving self.

Marlene climbed up on to a stool and sat at the breakfast bar. She giggled at the assorted sauces that had covered Elena and Reno.

"Silly ice cream making people!" she laughed even more.

Tifa and Reno exchanged confused looks.

"It's a private joke." Elena assured them

She grinned, "Are you looking forward to tonight Marlene?" she asked

"I sure am, papa say's he'll show me how to cook marshmallows on sticks." The little girl replied, sounding ever so excited.

"Cool, we baked cookies for tonight, do you want one?" Tifa asked.

Marlene nodded. "My ones are the best!" Elena said proudly.

Reno poked her in the ribs, "Are not, mine are!"

"Na ah!"

"Ya ha!"

"Oh here we go again." Tifa sighed.

"No way, mine have smiley faces." Elena said trying to impress Marlene.

"Well, mine are heart and star shaped!" Reno appealed.

Marlene laughed, "I'm sure both types are yummy! I guess I'll just have to eat a lot of them to decide."

"You can only have one now, you little piggy." Tifa joked as she handed her a cookie and tickled her.

* * *

Aeris had been put in charge of making sure the bonfire was being built properly.

"Cid, stop piling it up like sissy girl!" She shouted.

Cid jumped back, Aeris was scary when she had power.

"Red XIII! we need more wood and no stupid, useless twigs this time!" She ordered

"I know! but its hard work carrying it, I don't have hands like the rest of you." He complained.

"I don't want your worthless excuses cadet, just get the wood!!!"

Cloud cautiously approached, "Are you okay honey?"

"Yeah! Teehee, being in charge is fun!" She replied sweetly. Cloud smiled and went back to hanging lanterns with Yuffie and Vincent.

* * *

"Maybe she was right?" Rude said, he had returned home and was enjoying beers with Rufus.

"What do you mean?" Rufus replied.

"The way we're treating Reno, I just don't think I can hate my best friend!" Rude sighed.

"He got us into trouble time and time again, it's his loss." Rufus to a swig of his beer, he was a bit of a light weight and was already drunk. "And if you need help hating him think of this....."

"What?" Rude questioned.

"He's probably going to bone your girlfriend." Rufus laughed, he wouldn't usually use such crude language, but the drink had gotten to him.

Rude was furious, Rufus was right, "..........."

"They were always close, but now you've pushed them even closer, just forget about them." Rufus slurred.

If he wasn't the last friend he had, Rude would have punched him.

"I hate him!" Rude concluded as he opened another bottle of beer.

* * *

Night came and the gang were all gathered in the garden enjoying the party.

Barret was showing Marlene how to cook marshmallows, like he had promised.

"Go on I dare you!" Yuffie persisted.

"Yuffie! I am not going to try and jump over the fire!" Vincent said for the 12 time that night. "You have to, I dared you!" she replied.

"And what if I dared you to kiss Cid?" Vincent said smugly.

"Ew, I see your point!" They both laughed.

"I want to get some food, can I get you anything?" Yuffie asked.

"Just a mix of whatever's there." Vincent replied. Yuffie piled up the plate with the delicious food that Tifa and the Ex- Turks had made. She picked up a cookie and put it on Vincent's plate.

Vincent smiled and blushed slightly, the cookie she had bought him was one of Reno's heart shaped ones. Cloud had just performed the same gesture to Aeris, as had Barret to Elmyra.

* * *

"See, my cookies are the best everyone keeps taking them and not yours." Reno said proudly.

"That's only because they are all in Lurrrvvvv with each other." She protested.

Reno shook his head; Elena never wanted to accept defeat. He shoved one of the heart shaped cookies in her mouth and winked.

Tifa called him over to where she was sitting, he went to go and talk to her. The cookie gesture really did work; it made her own heart pound. Elena took a bite and smiled. They were incredibly good cookies.  
  
"What is it Tifa?" Reno asked.

"I just thought as it is such a lovely night, that you might want to look at the stars." She suggested.

"I could see them perfectly well over there." He said sounding more naive than rude.

"I mean with me." She added. "Oh, I see." He looked up at the sky.

"It's so pretty isn't it?" She sighed.

"Not really, I think it's kind of dull." Reno admitted.

"When I lived in the slums I could never see the stars." Tifa continued choosing to ignore his last comment.

"Oh yeah, sorry about that whole "dropping the plate on your home" thing." Reno said feeling slightly awkward.

"It doesn't matter now." She replied. They sat in silence for a while.

"Well, this was nice." Reno said as he got up and dusted the grass off of his trousers.

"Are you going, and so soon after you came to sit with me." Tifa replied sounding disappointed.

Reno hoped he could come up with an excuse quickly. "I have to go and help light fire works."

He said as he waved his lighter around. "I'll come to." Tifa decided, Reno helped her up.  
  
Reno gave his lighter to Cloud and he lit the fireworks. Tifa tried to stand close to Reno; she grasped his hand. Reno quickly grabbed Elena and pulled her between him and Tifa.

"What's that Elena, old buddy? You don't like the loud bangs; I'll cover your ears then, but I'll need both of my hands." Reno said loudly.

"What are you doing?" Elena whispered.

"Just play along. Tifa keeps trying to make a move on me." He replied.

"Okay, ahhhh I'm so scared, save me Reno!" she said slightly over acting.

Reno took his hand out of Tifa's and covered Elena's ears.

"I would have thought she would be use to banging, doesn't she use a gun?" Tifa questioned.

"Ummm, she's odd like that." Reno explained. Elena nudged him in the ribs with her elbow.

"I can still hear you, you know!" she whispered.

He leant his head on her shoulder and whispered in her ear, "Sorry, Tifa just won't quit!"

Elena swallowed hard, his breath felt great against her neck.

Tifa noticed Elena reaction. She decided to stare up at the Fireworks instead of at Elena.

Tifa allowed one tear to stream down her face,

"Pull yourself together!" She told herself.

"It would have never have worked with Reno anyway, things are to complicated." This thought gave her some comfort.

Cloud had one arm around Aeris; he felt sad for Tifa so he wrapped his free arm around her and pulled her close. Aeris didn't seem to mind at all, which surprised Tifa.

Reno noticed this and took his hands off of Elena's ears. He carefully put his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to him, so her back was pressed against his chest.  
  
Yuffie was also watching the fireworks; she wished Vincent would do to her what Reno had just done to Elena. But Yuffie understood. Vincent would never act so forcefully after what she went through, Instead Yuffie just leant her head on Vincent's shoulder. He slowly put his arm around her; Vincent did want Yuffie to feel inferior to the other girls who were all receiving special attention.  
  
"That was an awesome display!"

Aeris said after the fireworks had finished.

"Who wants hot coco?" she asked sweetly.

"Oh I do!" Marlene shouted loudly.

"Alright, but then straight to bed with you!" Barret said as he swept the little girl up.

"I'll put the fire out for you." Elena offered, "Just make sure you save me some!"

The others went inside to the house; they carried the remaining food inside.

Elena fiddled with the hose; it came on unexpectedly and soaked her.

"Why is does this always happen to me!" she thought.

She did as she said and put out the fire. Elena looked up at the sky. "It's pretty boring without the fireworks." She said aloud.

"That's what I said." Reno replied.

"I thought you went inside?" she asked.

"I did but then Tifa started talking about washing dishes, so I left." Reno walked towards her.

Elena couldn't help herself; she raised the hose and drenched him.

"Oh you are so dead!" He joked as he started to chase her. Where she had squirted the water before had become muddy, so he slipped.

Elena laughed and went to help him up only to slip herself. They both lay on the floor looking up at the stars, they seemed pretty to them now.

"Is the cold getting to you now?" Reno asked.

"Yes, and I have mud in my hair!" She exclaimed.

"You think you've got it bad, my hair is twice as long as yours." Reno sighed.

Elena rolled over so her arm was over him and propped herself up.

"Kiss me?" She asked.

"I don't know if I should." He said quietly. "I want to, but I don't think I deserve to."

Elena rolled her eyes, "Reno, don't be so dramatic, the world won't end if you kiss me!" and with that she kissed him.

Reno kissed her back; he wiped the mud off of her face. Elena sat up after kissing him.

"You taste like marshmallows, not like cigarettes anymore." It had been along time since she had kissed Reno; it was before her "relationship" with Rude and even before her crush on Tseng.

"Excuse me, but your coco is ready." Aeris called out from the doorway.

It was dark and she couldn't see where Elena or Reno was.

"How are we going to explain the mud?" Reno chuckled.

* * *

A/N: Please review, I'll try to include the other characters a little more in the next chapter. 


	11. Card Tower

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy or anything like that.

* * *

A/N: Thanks again to my two loyal reviewers; if you have any suggestions about how I should get Yuffie and Vincent together I would love to hear them, because I'm struggling to come up with ideas of my own. My phone lines went down!!! And I had my A/S exams (English, R.E and Media Studies) to do this week, so that's why this chapter is a little late.

* * *

Tifa finished of scrubbing the dishes, 

"I'm always stuck with tasks like this!" She sighed as she folded up the cloth she had been using.

The long haired woman pulled herself up on to the work service and sat down. She started to reflect on the evenings events.

"Maybe I frightened him?" she thought, "He was only cuddling his friend, its not like he kissed her or anything." Tifa felt bad, she understood that Reno would be cautious around her after what happened with Yuffie, but not that cautious.

She decided to stop moping and go and find the others, with that she jumped down off of the work service.

Cid was nattering on about something to Vincent; it didn't look like the gunman really understood what he was saying but nodded along anyhow. Yuffie was flicking through a magazine, only stopping to occasionally glance at Vincent.

Aeris was talking to Elena, who was waiting for Reno to come out of the bathroom so that she could get cleaned up.

Barret, Elmyra, Red XIII and Marlene had all gone to bed.

"How did you get so muddy?" Tifa asked Elena as she sat down with the  
other girls.

Elena blushed, "I sort of tripped."

"Where is Reno?" Tifa asked.

"He also tripped, so he's in the shower." Elena said yawning slightly, it was getting late now.

Reno came out of the bathroom, with a towel round his waist and another wrapped round his hair, and went into his bedroom.

Elena got up and walked into the bathroom. Reno had drawn a smiley face poking its tongue out on the steam in the mirror, this made Elena smile.  
  
"Has Cloud gone to bed?" Tifa asked Aeris.

"Yeah." The ancient sighed.

"Are you alright, you sound upset about something." Tifa queried.

"Oh Tifa, I've been putting it to the back of my mind time after time, but tomorrow is the anniversary of Tseng's death." She blurted out.

Tifa realized that Aeris had been waiting until the two ex-Turks were out of ear shot to bring it up in case it upset them.

"Oh of course! I'm sorry that I forgot." Tifa apologized.

"I know we were enemies, but I had known him since I was young." Aeris reflected.

"Do you want to take flowers to the Shinra memorial, they built one here in new Corel, at first Barret objected to it, he changed his mind when he remembered that even Shinra had lost loved ones." Tifa offered.

Aeris nodded, "Thank you Tifa, do you think we should take Elena and Reno?"

"Take Elena and Reno where?" The red head asked as he joined the rest of them.

"You know what tomorrow is? Don't you?" Aeris replied Reno lowered his head slightly and sadly nodded.

"Well, I'm going to go to the memorial to pay respects and I wondered if you and Elena would like to come?"

"That's very nice; yes I would like to go." Reno said, "I'm sure Elena will feel the same way." He sounded grateful toward Aeris.

"And that's why you've got to splash out and go for the premium oil." Cid explained.

Vincent had fallen asleep. Yuffie laughed when she noticed this.

"I %&£ can't believe him!" Cid exclaimed.

Yuffie tossed a pillow at him and he awoke with a start.

"I'm sorry Cid, I'm just tired." He excused.

"How are you tired, you ain't done nothing all day." Cid sighed.

"I put up decorations!" he protested, sounding kind of cranky. "I have to go to bed, goodnight everyone." Vincent yawned and stretched.

Yuffie smiled, Vincent could be so cute and not even know it.

He crossed paths with Elena as he walked to his room. She only had a towel wrapped around her. Elena came into the living room.

"I need to buy some more clothes." She concluded and sat down.

"I'll find you something to wear now." Tifa got up and went to find her something.

"We're going to pay respects to Tseng tomorrow, you coming?" Reno asked.

"Yeah, it's so hard to believe it's already been a year." Elena replied.

"I know what you mean. I miss him as well." Aeris agreed with her.

The two women gave each other an understanding smile.

Tifa returned with a T-shirt for Elena to sleep in.

"Before we go tomorrow, I have to get something nice to wear." Elena said remembering that the only outfit she had bought with her now had soup stains, ketchup and chocolate stains and was now covered in mud.

"I need to get new clothes as well." Reno added. His clothes had received almost the same stains as Elena's.

"Okay, we'll shop before we go." Aeris assured them, "Good night." She went to join Cloud in bed.

"I'm going to hit the sack as well." Cid said. The others had sort of forgotten he was there.

Yuffie closed her magazine, "I don't want to feel left out so I'm going to bed as well."

"Yuffie, before you go, would you get the blankets for Elena please?" Tifa asked, they had run out of rooms and so Elena had to crash on the sofa.

Yuffie did as she was told and made up the other sofa and returned to her room.

* * *

Yuffie began to change, she thought about Vincent's reaction to the cookie that she had given him and smirked.

"I'll win him over with the old Kisargi charm!" she thought as she climbed into bed.

Yuffie felt slightly disappointed, she had hoped that Reno would have shown more of an interest with Tifa, she knew things would have been complicated but it could have worked.

Tifa seemed disappointed by this to; Yuffie hoped that it wouldn't upset Tifa too much; she hadn't had much luck with men recently, what with Cloud getting Aeris back and now Reno and his overly affectionate friendship with Elena. Yuffie decided to forget about it, there are always complications in relationships and if Reno really cared for Elena there would be nothing she could do anyway.

* * *

Elena, Tifa and Reno were the only ones still awake. Elena was shuffling a pack of cards, they had decided to play some card games and finish the drinks that Tifa had made earlier.

"Fold!" Tifa sighed

"Hit me." Elena said enthusiastically. Reno gave her another card.

"Okay, I'll stick."

"As will I." Reno added

"21!" Elena said proudly.

"Bugger! 20." Reno sighed

"Yes I win again." Elena collected her winnings which consisted of a sandwich and sewing kit from a hotel that Tifa had picked up somewhere along the way.

"Do you want to try to make one of those towers." Reno asked as he started to put the cards up. Elena helped him and soon they had a very impressive tower, Unfortunately Tifa fell forward and knocked it down.

"Is she asleep?" Elena asked as she poked her.

"I guess the drink went to her head." Reno suggested, He picked her up and carried her to her room. Reno laid Tifa on her bed and put a blanket over her.

"I'm sorry about earlier, but you have to understand that I couldn't trust myself with you." He whispered.

"What about Elena, aren't you afraid you'll hurt her?" Tifa questioned as she woke up. Reno jumped back; he was startled at her abrupt awakening.

"I could never hurt Elena, no matter how crazy I get, its weird but I just don't have it in me to harm her." Reno felt confused.

"Do you love her?" Tifa asked as Reno turned to leave.

"Of course." He attempted to leave again.

"No! I mean are you in love with her?" Tifa protested.

He stood silently for a moment. "Good night Tifa, sleep well." Reno closed the door behind him.

Tifa felt she had pushed him too far again, she sighed and went back to sleep.

Elena had fallen asleep in the towel she was wearing; Reno put the blanket over her and sat down next to the sofa, he turned and kissed her forehead.

"Yuffie was right, I don't love her I said that to try and make things right, man! How stupid of me." Reno reflected. He picked up his bottle of beer that he had left on the coffee table and took a swig.

"I don't love Yuffie, because I love you and I've always loved you, but I'm such a coward I can only tell you when you're asleep."

Reno laughed slightly. Elena's arm flopped off the sofa and draped over his shoulder.

"I was angry at Yuffie and that rage and all the things going on in my life is what pushed me to do what I did, I am sorry and I wished I hadn't done it, I hope you know that." Reno continued,

"I'm not trying to justify what I did, I just want you to know that I could never hurt you, but you already know that and I suppose that is another reason why I love you, Argh, I rambling now."

"I had to witness you with Tseng and Rude and I know you weren't truly happy with either of them, but I could make you happy, I think? Maybe?"

Reno leant his head back; Elena's chin was now against his cheek.

"I don't think that you are unprofessional or ditzy, like Tseng did, and I don't think you need protecting and smothering like Rude does. I love you for who you are." Reno smiled.

"Some day I'll tell you that."

"Good night Elena." Reno said as he put her arm back on the sofa, he turned out the light as he made his way to his room.

A smile formed on Elena's face as she opened one eye to check he had gone.

Reno came out of his room to get his beer. "Hey! you were awake! thats cheating! And you didn't say anything!" Reno gasped.

Elena sat up and giggled, she held her arms out to him.

He sat on the sofa and hugged her.

Reno was blushing furiously, something he didn't usually do. "You are stupid Reno; you know you can tell me anything." Elena whispered as she stroked his long red hair.

"I know. I just have a hard time talking about feelings and junk like that." He replied. Reno's was resting his head on her shoulder.

"Aww, well if it helps's I....I..." Elena stuttered.

She looked confused. "I've lied so many times that it's hard to say it for real." She looked up at Reno and gained eye contact.

"I love you." She said finally, Elena smiled happily, "I really mean it!" Reno kissed her on the lips; she ran her hands through his hair and returned his kiss.

"We really should get some sleep, we have that thing tomorrow." Reno said as he reluctantly pulled away.

He stood up and attempted to walk to his room. Elena grasped his arm. "Don't go, or if you do, can I come?" she asked.

Reno stopped and thought for a moment.

"We don't have to do anything; I just want to be with you." Elena understood that Reno wasn't his usual self and didn't want to push him.

If he was his usual self he probably would have bedded both her and Tifa by now and probably at the same time as well. This thought made Elena laugh out loud. Reno didn't understand why she was laughing. It wasn't fair that she had to sleep on the sofa and he really did want to take her with him. He turned round and lifted her up,

"I hope you don't snore!" Reno teased as he carried her off into his room.

* * *

A/N: please review, thank you XX, (I said I was going to try and focus on some of the other characters some more but I forgot. I'll try harder next time.)


	12. Shinra gang reunited? part 1

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy.

A/N: Thanks to the reviewers as always, keep up the good work guys. Thanks for the support Ialara B, I'm glad you like my ideas.

Sorry that this fic isn't to you're taste The Infamous Fwah Faeries.

X

* * *

Yuffie sat on the sofa in the living room.

7.30 am was an unusual time for the young ninja to be up, she loved sleeping in until at least 11, a tradition had been interrupted by the heavily falling rain.

Yuffie was slightly worried about the fact that Elena's make shift bed was empty.

At first Yuffie worried that the charismatic blonde had been kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend. She decided that this was unlikely, Rude probably wouldn't do that and there was no damage to the house, no forced entries or signs of struggle.

Elena was probably with Reno.

Her grey eyes glanced out of the window, the rain was unbelievable as the weather had been quite mild in the week.

"You're up early, can't you sleep?" Vincent interrupted her observation. He had gotten up to fetch a glass of water.

"Its nice to be up this early, just listen to that rain." Yuffie exclaimed, she sounded slightly subdued.

Vincent smiled and poured himself a drink, he joined Yuffie on the sofa.

They sat silently for a while and listened to the rain.

"What are you going to do Vincent?" Yuffie asked.

"Hmm, I don't understand what you mean?"

"We can't stay here forever, what are you going to do when we all part ways?" Yuffie explained. She had been wondering what the future held for each of them since she awoke.

Vincent was dumbstruck, he hadn't thought about that at all. The thought of waking up and not seeing everyone, one person in particular, deeply saddened him.

"I don't know." he murmured eventually.

"Me either, its scary isn't it, so much has happened to me since I joined AVALANCHE, I thought our adventures would never end........" Yuffie reflected.

"I can't think about it, its too sad." Vincent sighed, Yuffie sensed a touch of desperation in the gunman's voice.

Yuffie laughed slightly, "We've changed a lot, you and I."

Vincent nodded in agreement, it wasn't long ago that he was locked away repenting for his sins, he thought he'd never smile or laugh again.

It was about the same amount of time ago when Yuffie was a backstabbing, thieving, little brat.

Now Vincent was beginning to open up and express his feelings again and Yuffie was beginning to understand friendship and trust, something she thought she would lose after the abuse she received from Reno, in fact it resulted in quite the opposite.

Yuffie saw past the nasty, ruined, mess of a man to see the scared little boy he really was inside. Her simple idea had saved his life and helped him change things around.

"Maybe we should ask Cait Sith what the future holds for us." Yuffie joked, lightening the mood.

Vincent laughed softly.

"Yuffie....I don't want to be forgotten or locked away again."

"I could never forget you! and I won't let anyone lock you away!" She exclaimed as she shifted closer to him.

"We're friends, Vincent, and friends don't forget each other." Yuffie assured him.

Vincent hugged her tightly, it had been a long time since Vincent had depended on someone like this.

"We could always go out places together or just hang around......." She went on.

Vincent stopped her and kissed her lips. Yuffie was shocked.

"I'm sorry." Vincent apologized as he pulled away.

"Don't be sorry! that was nice of you." Yuffie said softly, she placed her hand on his cheek.

Yuffie kissed him back.

"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't think anyone would be up so early!" Tifa gasped as she walked into the living room.

Vincent and Yuffie pulled away from each other.

"It's not how it looks, we were just, um.." Yuffie tried to explain.

"Tifa, why do you have you're suitcase?" Vincent asked changing the subject. Tifa was wearing her jacket and boots, she was also carrying her suitcase.

"I was going to take off for a while, that's all." she said blushing, Tifa had planned on just sneaking out and explaining later.

"That's all!!! No! please Tifa don't leave." Yuffie ran over to Tifa and hugged her, Tifa hugged her back.

"I think its for the best." Tifa sighed.

"Tifa, I don't think that we are ready to part ways yet." Vincent said speaking for the whole group

"What is going on, I heard Yuffie shouting." Cloud asked as he and Aeris joined the commotion.

"Tifa was going to leave!" Yuffie said sadly.

Cloud and Aeris began to protest and joined Yuffie in hugging Tifa. Marlene had overheard everything and began to cry.

Reno and Elena sleepily immerged from Reno's room. Elena ran over to Marlene and knelt down so she was at the same height as the little girl.

"Oh hey, hey, hey, don't cry honey, what's wrong?" Elena asked as she lifted Marlene up and held her tightly.

"Aunty Tifa said she was going to leave." Marlene wept.

Elena comforted her, while Reno inquired with Tifa.

"Is this true? It isn't because of me is it?"

Tifa stood still in bewilderment, Cloud, Aeris and Yuffie were hugging her tightly.

Tears weld up in her eyes, she didn't need a man to feel loved. She felt just about as loved as a person could about now.

Elena handed Marlene over to Tifa.

"No, I'm not going to leave." she assured Marlene, she rested her head against Tifa's shoulder and stopped crying.

"Ya have to promise." Marlene murmured.

"I promise, I was just being silly." Tifa said as she wiped Marlene's tears away.

No one could sleep after the mornings events so they ate breakfast quietly and quickly.

* * *

It was now about 9.30. Aeris thought this would be a good time to go shopping for Elena and Reno's clothes.

The three of them ran into the local shops of Corel. The rain was still pouring down, It was drenching the trio.

Elena shook her head vigorously, this action caused water to flick around the shop that they had just entered.

Reno grabbed any old thing to wear, he really could not be arsed to fuss over clothes. He grabbed a suit to wear at the memorial and paid.

Elena chose a skirt suit and some other outfits, her heart wasn't really in shopping either. Elena purchased her items and changed, Reno had done the same.

"We should go and find Aeris, she went to get flowers." Elena advised.

Reno nodded in agreement.

They joined the Cetra, she had bought a nice selection of flowers. The ex-Turks trusted her with this task, considering her former job.

Aeris and Reno walked ahead towards the memorial, Elena tagged behind.

The blonde checked that no one was looking and loaded her gun, she wanted to be prepared just in-case any mourning Shinra employee's wanted any trouble.

Elena had noticed that Reno was totally weapon less, his electro rod must have been confiscated by Vincent when they allowed him to stay with them.

* * *

The memorial was a marble statue of the Shinra building, there was a plaque with all of the people that who had died name's inscribed on it.

A blonde woman with a pram traced, her hand over the indented letter's.

"T....S....E....N.....G" it spelt out as she moved her finger along.

Reno glanced at the woman's face.

With her hair down and no make up it was almost impossible to recognise the former head of Shinra weapons department.

Tears mixed with the rain ran down her face.

"Scarlet." Reno whispered.

Scarlet ignored him, she took her pram and exited the memorial.

Elena shrugged, "She sure is different." Elena remembered her as the office slut with the eccentric "Kya ha ha" laugh.

Aeris had noticed the baby, he had Tseng's eyes. She realized what must have happened, a rush of sadness filled her body. Aeris repeated Scarlet's actions and ran her finger over Tseng's name.

Elena and Reno stood in an almost militarized fashion. Aeris concluded that It was probably a characteristic they had picked up from being a Turk or from being in SOLDIER or something like that.

Neither of them shed any tears, Elena put the flowers down in front of the memorial.

She stood back and grasped Reno's hand.

Aeris experienced a feeling of impending trouble, coming back from the dead had helped increase her senses.

Her green eyes looked out over the field that the memorial was situated in.

She noticed a group of people approaching them. Rude and Rufus emerged through the rain, they were accompanied by the gang that Reno had been with on the night he raped Yuffie.

At first they ignored each other and paid attention to the memorial. Rude put down the flowers that they had bought.

Rufus noticed his fathers name inscribed and his own name. For a short while everyone believed that he had died as well.

Rude's eyes locked on Elena and Reno's joined hands. Rude snatched her away from Reno, he accidentally knocked her down to the ground, her face smacked against the ground causing her nose to bleed.

Rude gasped and went to help her up, "Elena I'm so sorry, are you alright!"

She quickly kicked his shins knocking him down as well. "No, I'm not, You idiot!" She shouted as she desperately tried to stop the bleeding.

He grabbed Elena by her arms and shook her, "I said I was sorry!"

"Get off, you're hurting her." Reno shouted as he pushed Rude back.

Rufus's words rang in Rude's head, "He's probably going to bone your girlfriend."

Rude dropped Elena and turned his attention to Reno, she got to her feet and dusted herself off.

"I saw you and Him, holding hands, how could you do that to me." Rude shrieked at them, "How could you? he's a waste of space."

Aeris could see a fight breaking out any minute.

"I bet you slept with him, didn't you?!" Rude had totally lost it, he grasped Elena's neck, squeezing it tightly; he lifted her whole body off of the ground.

Elena gasped for air

"Fuck you! Yeah I did sleep with him and he was great, much better than you!" Elena choked up a lie,

she hadn't slept with Reno, but wanted to get back at Rude. Rude looked into her brown eyes and squeezed her neck tighter, she felt rain pouring down her face and dribbling into her mouth as she frantically tried to breathe.

Elena's feet dangled down, she lifted her leg and kicked Rude in the ribs. He didn't react, He kept his stance, almost like a robot.

Reno grabbed Elena's gun and aimed at Rude.

Rufus ran towards Reno and slashed him across the side of his chest, the gun fell from his left hand into the mud. Blood ran from Reno's body, the red-head fell backwards and hit the hard ground. Aeris screamed and ran to his side.

Rufus advanced towards Reno to finish him off once and for all. Aeris blocked him off.

Rufus went to stab the ancient in the stomach, flash backs of her murder rang in her head. Aeris used her enhanced strength to knock Rufus off of her, he fell into the dirt.

"Dispose of that Bitch." Rufus ordered the gang.

Elena made one last attempt to save herself by smashing her knee into Rude's face, he dropped her down, she rolled when she hit the ground and picked up her gun.

Elena accurately shot each of the mystery men, killing them instantly.

Rufus climbed to his feet and stared at the bodies.

"This isn't what we wanted....... everything has gone so wrong." Rufus whimpered.

Elena noticed that Reno was not moving. Her rage took control, she shot Rude in the leg causing him to collapse.

"Bastard! Why couldn't you trust me!" Elena shrieked as she kicked him in the ribs. The pain Rude was experiencing was shocking.

"Elena, Reno would have just committed more crimes, how many more girls do you think he would have raped?" Rufus asked, trying to justify their actions.

Lightening crashed in the sky, the rain had turned to a vicious storm. Elena's hair was drenched and matted down, her face smothered in her blood and her shoes covered in Rude's blood.

"You don't know him, you traitor, you scum, you are dead man." She shouted through gritted teeth.

She pushed her gun firmly against his forehead and placed her finger on the trigger.

"Elena, don't do it, You'll regret it. Let me take care of this." A familiar voice called.

"Reeve? what are you doing here?" Aeris asked.

"I came to mourn Tseng, What the hell do'ya think he'd say if he could see this mess!" Reeve breathed.

Elena shoved the gun harder against his head.

Reeve pulled her back, "Elena stop this now!"

Elena noticed Reno's deteriorating condition, she needed to give him immediate medical attention. She put her gun away.

Reeve lifted the injured Rude of the ground and dragged the terrified Rufus away from the battle scene. Leaving the dead gang members where they lye.

"We'll talk about this later." Reeve said bitterly.

Elena joined Aeris by Reno's side.

She tore open his shirt to inspect his wound. Elena used the ripped shirt to mop up his blood.

"He's unconscious, and if we don't get him inside soon he'll catch pneumonia." Aeris said sadly. Elena was surprisingly calm, she tore her own shirt and bandaged him up.

She lifted the unusual light man up of the ground and ran in the direction of the house.

Aeris took one last look at the memorial. "Everything is always so tragic" she mused.

Lightening struck again, Aeris chased after Elena.

* * *

Elena kicked at the door, Yuffie opened it.

"Oh my! what on earth happened!"

"Move out of my fucking way!" Elena shoved past Yuffie.

Yuffie had not witnessed this Elena, the angry Elena.

She jumped out of the way.

Elena put Reno down on the couch and undid the improvised bandage.

Yuffie handed her the first aid kit that she had fetched from the bathroom.

Elena could now clearly see the damage done to him, it wasn't as bad as she had feared. She was, on the other hand, extremely worried about how much blood he was losing. Elena ran her hand through her hair and thought hard. She searched through the box and found sterilized needles, her time in the Turks had taught her how to deal with situations like this and it wasn't the first time she had had to give Reno stitches.

Elena managed to stitch his wound, this successfully stopped the bleeding.

Aeris had returned home and had told Tifa about what had happened.

The two woman joined Elena and Yuffie in the living room.

Elena was gently wiping the blood off of Reno's skin. He felt cold and his lips were blue.

Yuffie handed Elena a blanket for Reno, she placed it over him and brushed his hair out of his face.

"Don't die Reno." Elena pleaded.

"He's going to be okay, I know it." Tifa assured her.

Yuffie was petrified that he wouldn't pull through, it was so weird a few days ago she was wishing he would die.

Aeris felt her stomach, Rufus had scratched her deeply when he attacked her.

"Oww, ohhh." She gasped

Tifa bandaged her up, she couldn't help but notice the scar on Aeris's small stomach and back. It was the Masamune scar that had killed her.

"Will Rude be okay?" Aeris asked as Tifa saw to her wounds.

"He'll be fine..... but I don't care about him." Elena murmured, she didn't take her dark eyes off of Reno.

"What happened to Rude?" Tifa whispered.

"Rude and Elena had a serious fight and she was going to kill Rufus." Aeris whispered discreetly.

Tifa's mouth dropped open, Elena was a complete mess, she looked terrifying. Not like the sweet girl she had appeared to be a few hours ago.

Aeris noticed Tifa's shock, "I would have done the same if someone tried to hurt Cloud."

Tifa nodded, she knew that was true.

"Love can bring out the best and the absolute worst in you." Aeris concluded.

"Ele.......Ele......na." Reno's lips moved as he faintly called her name.

"Its alright, I'm here." Elena held his hand in hers.

"Are...... you alright." He said trying to open his eyes.

"Ssssshh, I'm fine, you need to get some rest, you got stabbed." Elena spoke gently to him.

"Well, no shit." he joked. "D'you kill em?"

"No, Reeve stopped me, but I came close and I would have done it."

Reno turned his head to look at her, The blood on her face worried him.

"Its nothing, It just looks messy."

Tifa got a wet cloth for Elena to wash her face with.

Elena had calmed down now, she thanked Tifa and cleaned herself up.

"Reeve wants to talk to us later, we have to sort everything out." Elena told him, she sighed.

"I'm sorry I got you into this Elena, Just don't leave me now, please?" Reno begged.

Elena kissed his lips, he was beginning to warm up again. "Don't act so weak Reno." She mocked as she broke away.

Reno smiled, "Thank's Elena, thanks......." with that he passed out again.

* * *

A/N: I wanted to leave this chapter hanging open, I need to think of some Yuffie/Vincent stuff to put in the next one.


End file.
